Cheyenne Nation

Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and other agency records.

Alternate Names: Chayenne

Tribal Headquarters
Northern Cheyenne

Northern Cheyenne Tribe Box 128 Lame Deer, Montana 59043 Phone: 1-406-477-6284 Fax: 1-406-477-6210


 * Official web site of the Northern Cheyenne Nation

Southern Cheyenne

Brief Timeline

 * 1804: Lewis and Clark encountered the Cheyenne tribe near the Black Hills of South Dakota.
 * 1825: Treaty at Teton River
 * 1851: Treaty at Fort Laramie
 * 1857: Treaty known as Pawnee Treaty
 * 1860: Battles of Ash Hollow and Sand Creek
 * 1861: Treaty at Fort Wise
 * 1865: Two treaties one at Little Arkansas River
 * 1867: Treaty at Council Camp
 * 1876: The Northern Cheyenne and Sioux helped defeat General George Armstrong Custer's forces at the Little Bighorn
 * 1870's: The Northern Cheyenne were taken as prisoners to Fort Reno, Oklahoma, to be settled among the Southern Cheyenne. Nearly half of them were killed in an attempt to escape; some 60 fugitives made their way to Montana.
 * 1881 - 1883: Little Chief and some of this band of Northern Cheyenne moved from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory to the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota Territory.
 * 1884: Northern Cheyenne granted reservation lands in Montana
 * 1892: Cheyenne lands opened for Settlement.

Additional References to the History of the Tribe
Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Cheyenne tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods. Additional details are given in David Bushnell's Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi.

Grinnell, George Bird. The Cheyene Indians, Their History and Ways of Life. 2 Volumes. FHL 970.3 C429g

Grinnell, George Bird. The Fighting Cheyennes. Norman, University of Oklahoma, 1956.

Habegger, Lois R. Cheyenne Trails; A History of Mennonites and Cheyennes in Montana. FHL book 978.6 F2mh

Hoebel, Edward Adamson. The Cheyennes, Indians of the Great Plains. FHL 970.3 C429h

Shane, Ralph M. Early History of the Northern Cheyennes: the Morning Star People: the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation Agency Headquarters, Lame Deer, Montana. FHL Map 970.3 C429sr

Records
The majority of records of individuals were those created by the agencies. Some records may be available to tribal members through the tribal headquarters.They were (and are) the local office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and were charged with maintaining records of the activities of those under their responsibility. Among these records are:


 * Allotment records
 * Annuity rolls
 * Census records
 * Correspondence
 * Health records
 * Reports
 * School census and records
 * Vital records

The Cheyenne Tribe was under the following jurisdictions.

Agencies
The following agencies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had jurisdiction over the Cheyenne for the time periods indicated. BIA agencies were responsible for keeping such records as census rolls, allotment (land) records, annuity rolls, school records, correspondence, and other records of individual Indians under their jurisdiction. For details, see the page for the respective agency.

The agencies which had jurisdiction over a major portion of the Cheyenne in the United States were:

Upper Missouri Agency 1824-46

Northern Cheyenne Agency,

Upper Platte Agency 1846-70

Upper Arkansas Agency 1855-74

Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency 1875-80

Red Cloud Agency (South Dakota and Wyoming)

Superintendencies
St. Louis Superintendency

Central Superintiendency

Colorado Superintendency

Dakota Superintendency

Northern Superintendency

Wyoming Superintendency

Allotment Records
1895-1948 Land and Allotment Records. Cheyenne Agency FHL film 161368 and 161369 WorldCat

Treaties
During the latter part of the 18th Century and most of the 19th Century, treaties were negotiated between the federal government and individual Indian tribes. The treaties provide helpful information about the history of the tribe, but usually only include the names of those persons who signed the treaty. For more information about treaties, click here.

Treaties to which the Cheyenne Indians were a part were:

The year link (year of treaty) will connect to an online copy of the treaty.


 * 1825 July 6, at mouth to Teton River
 * 1851 September 17, at Fort Laramie
 * September 24, 1857, referred to in Pawnee treaty
 * 1861 February 18, at Fort Wise
 * 1865 October 14, at Little Arkansas River
 * 1865 October 17,
 * 1867 October 28, at Council Camp

Tribal Office Records
The Tribal Office is responsible for enrollment records, vital records, tribal police records, tribal court records, employment records and many others. They are an entirely different set of records from those kept by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Most of them remain in the Tribal Office. For details, contact that office at the address for the Tribal Headquarters listed above.

Vital Records
Prior to the Indian Reorganization Act, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through their agencies, may have recorded some vital events. Some were recorded on health forms, such as the "Sanitary Record of Sick, Injured, Births, Deaths, etc." Others were recorded as supplements to the "Indian Census Rolls." Some were included in the unindexed reports and other correspondence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Some vital records for the (name of tribe) Indians include:


 * Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency: M595, births and deaths 1925-1934,

Important Web Sites

 * History of the Cheyenne Indians
 * Official web site of the Northern Cheyenne Nation
 * Wikipedia article on the Cheyenne Nation
 * cheyenneancestors

Cheyenne

 * Carlson, Paul H. The Plains Indians. College Station, Texas: Texas A&amp;M University Press, c1998.

General
For background information to help find American Indian ancestors see For Further Reading.