Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Today the Crow Reservation occupies roughly 2.3 million acres of land and is home to
some 12,000 Crow Indians, which accounts for 75 percent of the tribe's enrolled members.
Nearly 85 percent of those on the reservation speak Crow as their first language. The largest
settlement by far and the county seat,
Hardin
(population 3,567, elevation 2,902 feet) is
not on the reservation; communities on the reservation include
Crow Agency, Fort Smith,
Garryowen, Lodgegrass, Pryor,
and
Wyola.
Just east of the Crow Reservation is the much smaller
Northern Cheyenne Indian
Reservation.
The Northern Cheyenne are a division of the great Cheyenne tribe who once
ranged across the Great Plains from South Dakota to Colorado. The first Cheyenne territory
dictated by the U.S. government was in the region around what is now Denver. The Chey-
enne were repeatedly attacked by the U.S. government and sustained enormous casualties,
all while living according to law in the territory the government had put them on. Following
the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in which the Cheyenne participated, the Army's attempts to
capture the Cheyenne increased in intensity. Several Cheyenne chiefs surrendered, expect-
ing to be returned to Colorado, and were sent to the reservation for the Southern Cheyenne
in Oklahoma.
After disease decimated the tribe and starvation threatened the survivors, fewer than
300 Northern Cheyenne slipped out of the reservation with the intent of going back north.
Nearly 10,000 soldiers and 3,000 settlers chased the band for six weeks across Kansas and
Nebraska. In the fall of 1878, the remaining Northern Cheyenne split into two groups: those
who were willing to surrender with Dull Knife and live at Red Cloud Agency, and those
under Little Wolf who wanted to continue fleeing. Dull Knife and his people were captured,
brutalized, and ordered back to Oklahoma. Dull Knife refused and again made a daring at-
tempt at escape. In the end, only nine of the people with Dull Knife survived. They were
eventually allowed to go to Fort Keogh, near modern-day Miles City, Montana, where Little
Wolf and his followers had ended up.
After assisting the Army in their pursuit of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce, the Northern
Cheyenne were given a reservation by the U.S. government in 1884. The reservation was
established and still exists between Montana's Tongue River and the Crow Reservation.
Dull Knife and the survivors and descendants of the 1878 escape from Oklahoma moved to
the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. In an atypical move, the government actually expan-
ded the reservation in 1890.
Today, the Northern Cheyenne Reservation is home to roughly 5,500 people, more than
90 percent of whom are Native American. Of the 9,043 enrolled tribe members, 55 per-
cent live on the 444,000-acre reservation.
Lame Deer
is the tribal and government agency
