Photograph by Ransom / Stills
Words by Ruth H. Burns
Each January, dozens of young people run 400 miles—roughly 15 marathons—from Nebraska to Montana in subzero temperatures to honor Northern Cheyenne ancestors who participated in the breakout of Fort Robinson 146 years ago. The act preserves and honors one of the most significant events for the Cheyenne people; it also exemplifies youth leadership, cultural and language preservation, social change, and environmental justice.
In my writings, I often regale readers with important stories about the culture and history of my people, the Oceti Sakowin (the Great Sioux Nation, comprised of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota peoples). This month, in observance of the anniversary of the Fort Robinson breakout, I’m going to tell you a riveting story about the Northern Cheyenne—a close ally of the Oceti Sakowin—who fought alongside us at the Battle of Little Big Horn, on June 25-26 in 1876.
Oglala Lakota War Chief Crazy Horse, a key leader in the Battle of Little Big Horn, and whose wife was Northern Cheyenne, was assassinated by the United States Army in September 1877 at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Eventually, Northern Cheyenne Chiefs Dull Knife, Little Wolf, Standing Elk, and Wild Hog, and about a thousand of their people, were forced to surrender by the Army, which had been in hot pursuit of the Northern Cheyenne since the battle. Part of the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs motivation for yielding, besides being outnumbered, was they were low on supplies and a great number of their people were women, children, and elders, many of whom were sick and hungry.
First and foremost, however, they believed that under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868—which Dull Knife, a renowned Dog Soldier and leading Chief, and Little Wolf, another prominent Northern Cheyenne who George Bird Grinnell, a famous ethnographer, called “the greatest Indian I have ever known”, had signed themselves,—hey would be placed on a large Reservation with their Lakota brethren.
We now know that the federal government had no intention of honoring the Fort Laramie Treaty, or any other agreement it had signed with Native Nations. Such was the case with the Northern Cheyenne. The Army moved them all the way to Oklahoma, which was utterly unfamiliar to them and far away from their Montana homelands. Not only were the Northern Cheyenne in a distant land, the Oklahoma Reservation was already occupied by other Tribes, diseases like the measles were rampant, it was poverty stricken, there was no food, and even when the Northern Cheyenne were allowed to hunt, game was scarce. To add insult to injury, by 1878 the government had sanctioned the slaughter of bison herds to cut off the primary food source of many prairie Tribes. As a result, the great animal was practically extinct.
It’s a tale of reconnection—to the land, their sacred language, their culture, their blood, their identity, and one another.
The Northern Cheyenne quickly surmised that staying in Oklahoma would be a death sentence. In September, all 353 of them—261 of whom are estimated to have included women, children, and the elderly—left with virtually nothing. The U.S. Army called them runaways. But the people, like my Oceti Sakowin ancestors, were nomadic. They traveled well. Near the Platte River in Nebraska, Little Wolf’s band split from Dull Knife’s.
Little Wolf and his people proceeded to winter in the sandhills of Nebraska, and continued their journey home to Powder River in Montana when the weather broke.
But by the end of October 1878, the Army had Dull Knife’s band of Northern Cheyenne surrounded near Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Anticipating capture, the Northern Cheyenne took apart their guns. The women hid the gun barrels in their clothes, and tied the small metal components to their garments and moccasins as ornamentation. Dull Knife said he would stop fighting if the federal government would allow him and his people to stay on the Pine Ridge Reservation with his friend, Lakota Chief Red Cloud. The federal government denied his request, and ordered him and the rest of the Northern Cheyenne to return to Oklahoma. He refused. It was then that the Northern Cheyenne became prisoners of war.
The Army forced Dull Knife’s band to stay in overcrowded barracks at Fort Robinson. There were bars on the windows. Some of the warriors were shackled. The Northern Cheyenne were refused food, water, and even wood to burn to stay warm in the winter. They ate their buckskin clothing to keep from starving and burned what scant furniture there was in the barracks to stave off hypothermia. Their choices were to die in prison or risk death on the prairie.
On January 8 and 9, 1879, outmanned and outgunned, the Northern Cheyenne broke out of Fort Robinson. The Army pursued them and recaptured 65 people by morning. About a quarter of those who were retaken were wounded. Near Hat Creek, around 50 miles away, the Army caught up with the remaining escapees. The Northern Cheyenne, who practice an oral tradition, have stories they still share from that day. One such story follows a young Northern Cheyenne boy who carried his sister so only one set of footprints could be tracked.
They run so their people may live. “Our run is our prayer,” they say.
The Army massacred them all, save nine, dumping the murdered Northern Cheyenne unceremoniously in a mass grave called The Pit. Some of their remains were kept as souvenirs, or for medical study. The boy was killed, but his sister survived.
Months later, by the Spring of 1879, the Army caught up with Little Wolf and his people. The American public was growing tired of the senseless massacres of Native women and children. Little Wolf’s band was not forced to march back to Oklahoma. Instead, they were moved to Fort Keogh in Montana. A new Reservation was established for them in their homelands five years later. Dull Knife, who was still alive, along with the few dozen of his band who remained, joined Little Wolf and his people there soon after. At great cost, the Northern Cheyenne had prevailed.
The Northern Cheyenne were finally able to reclaim the bodies of their loved ones massacred in Nebraska in 1994. They took them home to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana and buried them on a quiet hill overlooking the landscape. Dull Knife, also known as Morning Star, and Little Wolf, also known as Little Coyote, were also laid to rest in a cemetery in Lame Deer, Montana, among their descendants.
When Northern Cheyenne youth commemorate the Fort Robinson Outbreak from January 8 to 14 each year, they’re retracing the steps of their ancestors to complete a journey they could not. This year marked the 29th Annual Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run.
On their journey, they are joined by ancestral spirits, united in their commitment to endure and return to the People, no matter the sacrifice. It’s a tale of reconnection—to the land, their sacred language, their culture, their blood, their identity, and one another. The Spiritual Run is a reminder of the People’s resilience, an exclamation that they still live and could not be wiped out.
They run so their people may live. “Our run is our prayer,” they say. “Ne hoo’ohtsema.” “We are going home.”
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This 400-Mile Run Commemorates a Great Cheyenne Resistance
