Nearly 150 years after escape and massacre, Northern Cheyenne Tribe charts a trail to heal and save history

Gerry Robinson knows his people’s painful story all too well. The Northern Cheyenne historian and tribal member wrote a book on it – chapters detailing one atrocity after another. 

Robinson also knows how far the tribe has come in the face of generations of trauma. 

“Despite that, we have doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, teachers, and we have a tribal college,” he said. “We are gaining our history, our culture, our traditions, our songs. We’re becoming vibrant again.”

It’s the history, though, that the tribe hopes to preserve by creating the Northern Cheyenne Healing Trail near Crawford in the Nebraska Panhandle. The 4-mile path will lead to an existing monument commemorating the escape of 130 Northern Cheyenne from Fort Robinson roughly 145 years ago.

The escape is a defining chapter in the tribe’s history, a tragic illustration of their desire to return to their homeland after years of deception by the U.S. government. Tribal members hope the new trail, which is in the design and development phase, will help preserve their voice.

“These stories must be told,” said Judi gaiashkibos, a member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, which has helped the Northern Cheyenne with the project. “Our nation’s strength lies not only in celebrating its triumphs but in facing its failures and striving to do better as we learn from our history.”

A Nebraska historical marker stands by the barracks at Fort Robinson. A total of 149 Northern Cheyenne were captured and taken to the fort in October 1878. By January the situation had grown untenable and 130 Northern Cheyenne escaped in a desperate bid to return to their homeland. Sixty-four died in the ensuing violence and pursuit by soldiers. Photo by Heidi Beguin for the Flatwater Free Press

The Northern Cheyenne also hope the trail will offer some healing.

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“There are many still who actually refuse to go down to Fort Robinson because it is such a hard story,” Robinson said. “That’s part of the reason why we’re building the trail too. Not only for those people who haven’t heard the story, but for the Northern Cheyenne who have heard the story and are unable to get past their grief and trauma.”

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They cut the heat and the food. Then they stopped giving them water. This was the U.S. government’s way of strong-arming captive tribe members to return south to Oklahoma and out of the way of gold miners in the winter of 1878-79. 

The Northern Cheyenne once called South Dakota’s Black Hills area home. But the discovery of gold in 1874 influenced the government’s view of the tribe’s traditional homeland. 

After a series of clashes and attacks by U.S. soldiers, a band of Northern Cheyenne surrendered near Fort Robinson in 1877. Army officials pressured the tribe to move south. 

Pictured is the planned Northern Cheyenne Healing Trail path along the White River from atop the Cheyenne Bluffs. Photo courtesy of Gerry Robinson

Against tribal tradition and opposition from several leaders, one member decided to speak on behalf of the tribe. He said they would agree to relocate to Oklahoma. The government assured them that if they didn’t like it after a year, they could return to their homeland. More than 900 Northern Cheyenne headed south, according to an article Robinson wrote for the Wyoming Historical Society.

Measles, malaria and starvation tore through the tribe in Oklahoma. The promised government rations never materialized. Nearly 50 Northern Cheyenne died within a year. The tribe made the decision: It was time to return home.

On Sep. 9, 1878, they left their lodges standing and fires burning, gathered what they could on their backs and headed north.

They had sent some young men ahead who stole horses, guns and supplies in preparation for the tribe’s departure. Soldiers were on their trail within a day. 

The Northern Cheyenne crossed into Kansas, raiding through the state, gathering supplies and battling with the chasing soldiers. After one attack, the tribe lost all the supplies they had stolen. Then they came across a couple settlements, Robinson said. Tribal members – primarily young men – raided, killed and raped. 

“It’s a dark part of the story, but it’s also one of the very real parts,” Robinson said.

“A great line I learned is desperation has no morality, or desperation knows no bounds, something like that. That’s the state that they were in,” he added.

The tribe moved into Nebraska, separating into two bands. One went with Morning Star, known by the Lakota name Dull Knife. 

Morning Star, known by the Lakota name Dull Knife. Photo via National Archives

Morning Star’s group was captured, taken to Fort Robinson and imprisoned in old cavalry barracks. 

Then on Jan. 3, 1879, two and a half months after their capture, the government informed the tribe it was sending them back south. They refused. 

Capt. Henry W. Wessells, the commander of the fort, decided to pressure them. First, he imprisoned the leaders. The tribe didn’t budge.

Wessells cut off their heat and their food. They still refused to go south, so he cut off their water.

The prisoners scraped the frozen condensation off the windows so their children could have water. Two-thirds of the roughly 130 people left in the barracks were women and children – around 40 were men of fighting age, Robinson said.

The Cheyenne weren’t dressed for winter – military communications describe them as being “in rags.” The government requested winter provisions but delayed the delivery, fearing it would reveal the government’s plan and trigger an uprising. 

The plan was to put them in stock cars and ship them back south once the clothing came through. 

“There’s a paper trail that’s just sickening. … They had just strung them along knowing full well they were going to eventually admit they were going south,” Robinson said.

On Jan. 9, 1879, the young men left in control after the leaders had been imprisoned finally reached their breaking point.

Replicas of historic Fort Robinson structures, including the barracks where the Army imprisoned the Northern Cheyenne, stand at Fort Robinson State Park. Photo by Heidi Beguin for the Flatwater Free Press

They had smuggled in guns when they were captured. Children wore pieces of weapons – a trigger around one girl’s neck, a hammer on her wrist, and a spring in her hair, according to the book “The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge: A Lakota Odyssey” by Joe Starita. They reassembled the guns and prepared.

They broke through the windows, killed a couple guards and ran upstream along the White River. A full moon hung in the sky and snow sat on the ground, Robinson said. Two dozen soldiers raced into the 10-degree night in pursuit.

“The soldiers basically fired at anything that moved. They say in their reports that they were kind and considerate, that they were only firing at combatants, but half of them were women and children,” Robinson said. 

The chase led to a 500-foot sandstone bluff. Only 37 Northern Cheyenne made it over the top.

Many were captured and killed in the foothills – not far from where a monument now stands.

“Their bodies, especially women, were desecrated,” Robinson said. “There were witnesses who spoke to this.”

On Jan. 22, soldiers finally surrounded the surviving Northern Cheyenne. They refused to surrender. “The four companies moved in and just slaughtered them in a wallow …” Robinson said.

Of the 130 who broke out of the barracks, 64 were killed, including 19 women and seven children. Most of the 66 who were captured were sent to the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota.

The band of Northern Cheyenne that had separated from the others in 1878 made it to Montana, where they surrendered. A reservation eventually sprouted up in southeastern Montana, where the tribe reassembled.

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Fort Robinson became a Nebraska state park in 1962, roughly 80 years after the Northern Cheyenne escaped. Today it offers a mix of activities which helped draw 757,000 visitors in 2023, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

But for many members of the Northern Cheyenne, it represents something different.

“Fort Robinson is very important to all Northern Cheyenne tribal members because there was obviously a significant event that happened there,” said Major Robinson, Gerry’s brother and a tribal project manager. “But it’s also a hard place for Northern Cheyennes to visit because it can be so sorrowful.”

The only sign by the highway today is the Nebraska historical marker sign. Photo by Heidi Beguin for the Flatwater Free Press

Two tribal elders, Edna Seminole and Rosie Eaglefeathers, finally brought themselves to visit in 2001. The sight that caused the most pain and spurred the most anger came into view outside of the park. 

A roadside sign incorrectly relayed the history of what’s been called “the Cheyenne outbreak.” The sign was riddled with bullet holes. 

“It sent a message to them that not only did people back in the 1800s want to see Native people, Indigenous people, gone from the Earth, but there’s still people who had that anger toward us,” Major Robinson said. 

The pair couldn’t find any other acknowledgements of the Northern Cheyenne’s history at Fort Robinson. They committed to returning the next year with a mission: to build a monument honoring their ancestors, Major Robinson said. “And they did.”

A local rancher named T.R. Hughes had donated some land to Chief Dull Knife College, a community college serving the reservation and surrounding communities. Gerry Robinson said Hughes wanted the Northern Cheyenne to use it as they saw fit. 

When Seminole and Eaglefeathers returned the following year, they brought stones from the reservation and placed them on the Hughes’ land. The monument would be built where the stones sat.

It took 15 years, but the Northern Cheyenne officially unveiled a monument commemorating the escape in 2016. 

“It was a very emotional day in 2016,” Major Robinson said. “The vision of these Cheyenne women was pretty powerful.”

After the monument was built, Seminole made it clear that the work was not done, Major Robinson said. “Now we need to build a trail from the barracks out to this monument,” he recalled her saying. Both Seminole and Eaglefeathers are now deceased.

Once completed, the healing trail will serve as part of the Great American Rail-Trail, a planned nation-spanning trail running from Washington, D.C. to the Pacific coast in Washington state.

The healing trail isn’t meant to be rushed through, though. It will be an area where people – Northern Cheyenne Tribe members, calvary ancestors and anyone else – can pause, reflect and learn about the tribe’s journey to reclaim a piece of their homeland. 

“Through creating this trail, we remember the struggles and the sacrifices of our ancestors, but it’s also to heal ourselves and as we heal ourselves, we heal our ancestors too,” Major Robinson said.

A tribal committee continues to fundraise. It has partnered with multiple groups to help bring the trail to fruition, including the national Rails to Trails Conservancy, Nebraska Community Foundation, Fort Robinson State Park, Friends of the White River, the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, the Nebraska Land Trust and the Mari Sandoz Society.

“This trail will not only educate but also stand as a testament to the resilience of our First Peoples,” said gaiashkibos with the state Commission on Indian Affairs. “Healing can only begin with the acknowledgment of difficult truths, such as the Cheyenne Breakout. The trail is a pathway to truth, and with truth, healing is possible.” 

In January, the Northern Cheyenne will gather at the monument for an annual ceremony to remember their ancestors and what they went through on Jan. 9, 1879. It is a heavy occasion. And it is important for remembering, for keeping alive the Northern Cheyenne perspective, and for healing. 

“I’m convinced that when they broke out of that barracks, they had myself and every person living in this generation in their hearts because they knew that they had to settle on the Cheyenne homeland,” Gerry Robinson said. “They were determined to either live in it or die in it. There was no other choice.”

By Heidi Beguin

Heidi Beguin is the freelance writer behind Heidi Writes. She's written numerous feature stories, blog posts, grants and has a weekly Tech Tips column in the Sheridan County Journal Star in Western Nebraska. She was a high school English teacher for 17 years, advising her students to dream big before deciding to follow her own dreams of being a writer. She and her husband Kirk live in the Nebraska Panhandle and can be found on the golf course year round – either golfing or walking their dogs.

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