Southern Cheyenne

The Southern Cheyenne are a group of North American Indians from the Cheyenne people . They lived on the Arkansas River and were allied with the Comanche . They were hostile to the Kiowa until around 1840, after which they allied with them against other tribes and against the whites. In 1865 , after the Civil War , they ushered in the Indian wars against the whites of the 19th century. In 1878 they were almost wiped out due to a cholera epidemic (1849) and the war against the whites.

In the mid-19th century, Black Kettle became chief of the Southern Cheyenne. He faced the whites peacefully. Black Kettle was close friends with the white fur trader William Bent . Bent had saved the lives of two Cheyenne years ago, had been accepted into the tribe, and married a Cheyenne woman. Their son, George Bent , attended the white school, but lived with the Cheyenne for many years. He translated during numerous negotiations and wrote down the history of the tribe. William Bent established with his brother Charles and a partner in 1833 on the Arkansas River the first trading post Bent's Fort in the area of the Cheyenne.

In the 1860s, this tribe was attacked and defeated several times by the American military. Their chief Black Kettle was assured by the American president at the time that his people would be spared from aggression by whites if he were to hoist an American flag on his tipi . This Black Kettles gesture did not spare his people from the brutal attack of the so-called "Colorado Volunteer Militia" under the leadership of Colonel Chivington , who attacked the sleeping village in 1864 and brutally killed around 200 men, women and children later their human trophies planted on Indian lances or on sabers in the city from which they came, presented as if in a triumphal procession. Known as the Sand Creek Massacre , only a few Cheyennes survived. Even children and pregnant women were among the 150 dead (Black Kettle, George Bent and others survived the massacre as they dug themselves into the sand on the riverbank).

Black Kettle was a man of peace who despised war. It was precisely this circumstance that led the young warriors to consider him weak. Then a group of dissolved dogs warriors (Dog Soldiers) going from the root to lead a guerrilla war against the white military. Black Kettle went with the old men, women, and children to seek refuge at a fort. At the Washita River General lurked George Armstrong Custer already on the Indians. Custer and his men all killed Cheyenne. Chief Black Kettle, who had come towards Custer with a white flag, was also struck down by two shots.

Southern Cheyenne survivors were assigned a reservation in Oklahoma in 1867 , with warriors breaking out repeatedly until 1875.