Cheyenne Dog Soldiers

Looks at the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers through a nearly forgotten ledgerbook of pencil illustrations by Cheyenne warriors. Shows color photos of the drawings side-by-side with explanations and commentary, matching the drawings with known events, such as the 1865 battles of Rush Creek, Platte River Bridge, and Tongue River in the Dakota and Montana territories. Includes color illustrations and bandw photos. For general readers and historians. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Discover on CD-ROM one of the most tumultuous times in U.S. history through ledger art, Indian and cavalry artifacts, documents, and artwork. Witness Cheyenne warfare as illustrated in the oldest known Cheyenne ledgerbook, revealed in full color. Designed as a companion piece to Cheyenne Dog Soldiers: A Ledgerbook History of Coups and Combat, this beautiful CD-ROM brings to light a history little-known for more than a century. Sharing an incredible story told through the pictographic drawings of the elite Cheyenne warrior society called Dog Soldiers, this CD-ROM contains the full text of the ledgerbook found at Summit Springs, Colorado on July 11, 1869. In addition, the CD-ROM includes a virtual tour of the Colorado History Museum exhibit. From the Sand Creek Massacre to the tragic defeat of the Dog Soldiers at Summit Springs, the historical society's curators pinpoint conflicts with cavalry and other Indians to dates, places, and people in history. Collage Table of Contents guides you through the information with ease Virtual tour of the Colorado History Museum exhibit with virtual objects for a unique hands-on experience! Explains the who, what, where, when, and why of the Dog Soldiers and other Plains Indians, and includes two sections on the tragic events at Sand Creek and the warfare that followed. Includes fun learning games for all ages that offer a great way to study and learn how to translate and even create ledger art! Published by the Colorado Historical Society

In his study of the civilian population that fell victim to the brutality of the 1860s Kansas Indian wars, Jeff Broome recounts the captivity of Susanna Alderdice, who was killed along with three of her children by her Cheyenne captors (known as Dog Soldiers) at the Battle of Summit Springs in July 1869, and of her four-year-old son, who was wounded then left for dead.

Of all the Plains Indian tribes, the Cheyennes were most distinguished for warlike qualities. Few in number, they overcame or held in check most of the peoples who opposed them, and when the westward movement of European civilization began, they made more trouble than all the rest combined. In short, they were preeminently warriors among peoples whose trade was war. As in other prairie tribes, the warriors of the Cheyenne were organized into societies or orders. These societies were fraternal, military, and semi-religious organizations with special privileges, duties, and dress, usually tracing their origin to some mythical culture hero or medicine man. Each society had its own songs and secret ritual, and exacted certain observances and standards of its members -- The Dog Men or Dog Soldiers.

Details on battle rituals, weapons, strategy and dress are woven into this account of the Dog Soldiers of Cheyenne who attack the Pawnee. Grades 4-6.

When the Europeans arrived in the New World, they discovered the continent already inhabited by over a thousand different tribes of people. Christopher Columbus, believing he had landed in a part of India, then mistakenly called them Indians, a name which many call them until this day! Each tribe, as the newcomers learned, had its own culture, language, and way of life. Some were farmers and grew crops, while others lived by the sea or rivers and were fishermen. Still others were nomads and hunters living off the game they hunted. The farmers and fishermen tended to be more peaceful and many welcomed the new arrivals, while the opposite was true of the hunters. Buffalo was the main staple of the hunting tribes. As the buffalo went, so went the hunters, traveling through what is now the Dakotas and Texas. The fiercer the tribe, the farther they ranged. The fiercest of them all was the Cheyenne! They were the most warlike tribe of all. The most warlike of all the Cheyenne were the Dog-Soldiers! They were a very special and elite force of warriors who wore a red sash around their waists. They pinned the sash to the ground in time of battle so they could not retreat. One out of a hundred warriors became a Dog-Soldier, and one out of a hundred Dog-Soldiers became a leader. This is the story of such a leader, told in his own wordsathe story of MANTAKOTA, chief of the Hawk Clan of Cheyenne Dog-Soldiers.

George Bent, the son of William Bent, one of the founders of Bent's Fort on the Arkansas near present La Junta, Colorado, and Owl Woman, a Cheyenne, began exchanging letters in 1905 with George E. Hyde of Omaha concerning life at the fort, his experiences with his Cheyenne kinsmen, and the events which finally led to the military suppression of the Indians on the southern Great Plains. This correspondence, which continued to the eve of Bent's death in 1918, is the source of the narrative here published, the narrator being Bent himself. Almost ninety years have elapsed since the day in 1930 when Mr. Hyde found it impossible to market the finished manuscript of the Bent life down to 1866. (The Depression had set in some months before.) He accordingly sold that portion of the manuscript to the Denver Public Library, retaining his working copy, which carries down to 1875. The account therefore embraces the most stirring period, not only of Bent's own life, but of life on the Plains and into the Rockies. It has never before been published. It is not often that an eyewitness of great events in the West tells his own story. But Bent's narrative, aside from the extent of its chronology (1826 to 1875), has very special significance as an inside view of Cheyenne life and action after the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, which cost so many of the lives of Bent's friends and relatives. It is hardly probable that we shall achieve a more authentic view of what happened, as the Cheyennes, Arapahos, and Sioux saw it.

Small-time journalist John Converse thinks to cash in on the last days of the Vietnam War by becoming involved in a major drug deal, but things go very wrong when he gets back to the U.S. and finds himself hunted by a corrupt government agent.