Feet, pounding the ground in a rhythmic beat. Voices singing a strange and haunting, yet beautiful chant. The fire, burning high over the faces of the dancers, casting eerie shadows over the campground. Horses panting heavily from the long day of hunting buffalo. The sun going lower in the darkening sky. This paper will tell you about six things. The first one is religion. It will tell you a story behind one of the Cheyenne rituals. The second one is food. It will tell you the food they ate. The third one is culture. It will tell you about the ways of the Cheyenne. The fourth one is climate. It will tell you the weather the Cheyenne were used to. The fifth one is entertainment. It will tell you what the Cheyenne did for fun. The sixth one is climate. It will tell you the weather the Cheyenne were used to.
RELIGION
The Cheyenne Native Americans had rituals. One ritual was the four arrows ceremony. The story behind the ceremony goes like this: Once, long ago, there was a tribe. But this was a horrible tribe to belong to. People fought, and stole, and hoarded. In that tribe one day a boy fought with the chief over a buffalo skin, and was exiled. A few months later, he was sleeping by a stream, and he heard a voice say, "Here are four arrows. Two are for success in hunting, and the other two are for success in war." So the boy prayed to the arrows, and good came to his people. The Cheyenne continued to pray to the arrows, and kept them in a special tent with an arrow keeper. The ceremony empowers men of the tribe. It was done during the summer solstice. No women were allowed.
FOOD
The Cheyenne had a varied diet. First, the meat they ate. They hunted buffalo, which was their main food source. Furthermore, they stalked antelope. Additionally, they pursued deer, elk,and wild turkeys. A normal sized buffalo could feed an adult for up to 200 days. Buffalo also produced about 140 pounds of jerky. The Cheyenne dried most of their meat. That way, it didn't spoil. Last but not least, they fished for fish. The Cheyenne gathered rice from swampy areas. They grew corn,and gathered elderberries and chokeberries.
CULTURE
The Cheyenne Native Americans were not always nomadic buffalo hunters. Around the 1800s, they quit farming and left their permanent villages. They became nomadic hunters who followed the buffalo. Soon they went South to trade for horses with the southern tribes. Having horses increased their hunting skills. The horses were also handy to ride if you were a nomad. The Cheyenne lived, worked, and hunted as a group. The Cheyenne valued their children. The more children the tribe had, the more chance of surviving the tribe had. They didn't hit their children.
CLIMATE
The Cheyenne Indians had varied weather as well as varied food. It was very dry and hot. In the summer it could get hotter than one hundred degrees fahrenheit. In the winter it could go lower than forty degrees fahrenheit. They also got heavy snows in the winter time. That's a lot colder than any Florida winter.
INTERESTING FACTS
The Cheyenne were called the "Horse People". They got their real name, Cheyenne from their neighbors, the Sioux. Roughly translated, it means "speakers of an unintelligible language". They were closely allied with the Arapaho, and loosely allied with the Sioux. Their council was called the council of 44. As you may have guessed, it had 44 members.
ENTERTAINMENT
Because I could not find specific information on what the Cheyenne did for entertainment, so this is what tribes in their region, maybe them to, did for entertainment.
The boys on the Plains would play a game with a bow and arrow. They would shoot the arrow through a hoop. This would help them improve their aim. The girls would practice making doll-sized teepees. This would help them practice for when they were women. Then they would have to set up the full sized ones.
The sound of feet, dying away. Voices, getting softer and softer. The last glowing embers of the fire,sizzling away. Horses, laying down quietly on the ground. The sun, gone from the sky, and the first few stars appearing. This paper told you about six things. The Native Americans and I have done our jobs. Go now knowing more than you did before.
SOURCES
1. The Encyclopedia of North American Indians.
Published in 1997 by
Marshall Cavendish Corporation
Tarrytown N.Y USA
Volume 3 page 293 through 295
2. Native Americans
Published in 2000 by
Grolier Education
Sherman Turnpike
Danbury Connecticut USA
Brown Partworks Ltd
3. The Cheyennes
Published in 1996 by
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
and Ronald Himler
Printed in the USA
4. The Cheyenne Hunter-Gatherers of the North Plains
Published in 2004 by
Capstone Press
Mankato Minnesota USA
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