#littlewolf

I need more people that will listen to me talk about Cleo ships

I LOVED THIS MOMENT SO MUCH low-key vampires smp zombiewood have been so soft with each other. Even when Cleo’s insulting him (“that’s what your dad told you isn’t it”) they say it so softly and Martyn just agrees sadly. They’re so cute together I love them dearly

you can raise the baby alongside @neoptolemus-son-of-achilles 's and @antinous-of-ithaca 's babies 🥰

"Can men even get pregnant-?"

@wisdomwielder

Northern Cheyenne Exodus

The Northern Cheyenne Exodus (1878-1879) is the modern-day term for the attempt by the Northern Cheyenne under chiefs Morning Star (Dull Knife, l. c. 1810-1883) and Little Wolf (also known as Little Coyote, l. c. 1820-1904) to leave the Southern Cheyenne Reservation in Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma) and return to their home in modern-day Montana.

Following the Battle of the Little Bighorn (25-26 June 1876), in which the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho defeated the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (l. 1839-1876), Morning Star and Little Wolf gathered their forces to press for another Native American victory in the hopes of halting US westward expansion. They were defeated at the Battle on the Red Fork (also known as the Dull Knife Fight) on 25 November 1876.

The Cheyenne surrendered at Fort Robinson in modern-day Nebraska in 1877 with the understanding, based on the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, that they would be able to live with the Sioux in their ancestral homelands. Instead, they were forcibly deported to Indian Territory in the south where they found the conditions unbearable. In September 1878, Morning Star and Little Wolf led their people out of the reservation and headed north.

They were pursued by US authorities until they separated in October 1878, with Morning Star's band heading for the Red Cloud Agency to seek the protection of Chief Red Cloud (l. 1822-1909), and Little Wolf journeying toward the Powder River territory. Morning Star/Dull Knife's band was apprehended and taken to Fort Robinson where US authorities tried to starve them into submission and a return to the south. Little Wolf's band succeeded in reaching the Powder River. Later, the Northern Cheyenne were able to negotiate the establishment of what became the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana, where many of their descendants still live today.

Background

The westward expansion of the United States in the mid-19th century brought settlers into conflict with the Plains Indians and others who had been living on their lands for thousands of years. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was supposed to resolve these problems by clearly defining territories for each nation as well as those open for settlement by US citizens. This treaty was never honored, however, and was broken in 1858 when gold was discovered on Native American lands, leading to Pike's Peak Gold Rush.

Instead of honoring the treaty, the US government sent the military to protect US citizens who had no rights to the land they were mining and settling on. The First Sioux War (1854-1856), the Colorado War (1864-1865), and Red Cloud's War (1866-1868) were all Native American responses to the broken treaty and westward expansion. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 ended Red Cloud's War and was supposed to prevent further conflicts by establishing the Great Sioux Reservation, but this agreement was also never honored by the US government and was abandoned when Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills (on the Sioux Reservation) in 1874. This led to the Black Hills Gold Rush of 1876, which the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho responded to in the Great Sioux War (1876-1877).

Custer and five divisions of the 7th Cavalry were wiped out at the Battle of the Little Bighorn by a coalition formed by the Sioux holy man and chief Sitting Bull (l. c. 1837-1890) which included the Cheyenne and some Arapaho. Morning Star/Dull Knife did not participate in the battle, nor did Little Wolf (although he was on the field on 25 June). After the battle, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse (l. c. 1840-1877), Sioux war chief Gall (l. c. 1840-1894), and the other leaders dispersed, but, inspired by their victory, Morning Star/Dull Knife and Little Wolf mobilized Northern Cheyenne warriors to continue the fight. They were defeated at the Battle on the Red Fork (Dull Knife Fight) on 25 November 1876.

Battle of the Little Bighorn

Kurz & Allison (Public Domain)

Little Wolf (Eastman's Biography)

Little Wolf (Ohcumgache, also known as Little Coyote, l. c. 1820-1904) was a Northern Cheyenne chief and holy man, best known for his role in the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878 but also recognized for his resistance to US westward expansion between 1866-1876. Prior to his 1879 surrender, he was among the greatest Cheyenne chiefs of his time.

His fame is due, in large part, to his favorable depiction in the works of anthropologist and writer George Bird Grinnell (l. 1849-1938), who was also his friend, and in Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains (1916) by the Sioux writer and physician Charles A. Eastman (also known as Ohiyesa, l. 1858-1939), who knew him as well. Grinnell describes Little Wolf's character and what made him such a great leader in The Cheyenne Indians, Volume II:

Little Wolf, when a soldier chief, always led his men; he never sent anyone ahead of him. So, he always counted the first coup. But besides fighting himself, he made a plan for each battle. During the progress of a fight, Little Wolf constantly called out words of instruction and encouragement to his warriors, telling them to fight hard and advising them how to fight efficiently. He thought not merely of his individual deeds, but of the battle as a whole. In other words, he was what few Indians have been – an organizer. His march north from the Indian territory in 1878 showed him to be a great general. Little Wolf always considered a situation in advance and planned what should be done. He possessed great foresight, tried to think of and to provide for every contingency, and to leave nothing to chance. (51-52)

Eastman's biography of Little Wolf, given below, relies heavily on Grinnell's work in order to, as he says, avoid any claims he is exaggerating the facts. Eastman's piece on Little Wolf is understood as more accurate than his work on Morning Star (Dull Knife, l. c. 1810-1883), also a chief of the Northern Cheyenne, and Little Wolf's co-leader during the Northern Cheyenne Exodus.

Eastman's Biography & Omissions

Eastman's biography focuses mainly on the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878 when Little Wolf and Morning Star (Dull Knife) led their people from the reservation in "Indian Territory" (modern-day Oklahoma), to where they had been forcibly removed, back to their home in the territory of Montana and the Dakotas. He includes details of Little Wolf's youth but omits the events that brought him to the Oklahoma territory.

Little Wolf fought in Red Cloud's War (1866-1868) and signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, ending hostilities and promising the Sioux their ancestral lands in the Dakotas, including the Black Hills. When this treaty was not kept, Little Wolf and others resumed hostilities and supported the Great Sioux War (1876-1877). Little Wolf did not participate in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (25-26 June 1876) but was camped nearby, and it was his men, foraging for food, who were seen by Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (l.1839-1876), who, believing they had seen his forces (and so cost him the element of surprise), launched his attack, leading to "Custer's Last Stand" and the great Sioux-Cheyenne victory under the leadership of Sitting Bull (l. c. 1837-1890), Crazy Horse (l. c. 1840-1877), Sioux war chief Gall (l. c. 1840-1894), Cheyenne war chief Two Moons (l. c. 1847-1917), and others.

After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Little Wolf and Morning Star (Dull Knife) mobilized their forces to continue the fight but were defeated at the Battle on the Red Fork (the Dull Knife Fight) on 25 November 1876. After this loss, they were sent to the Oklahoma territories they would later escape from. Little Wolf and Morning Star (Dull Knife) separated en route during the exodus, leading the latter's band to their engagement known as the Fort Robinson Breakout/Fort Robinson Massacre of January 1879. Morning Star (Dull Knife) survived and made it to the Red Cloud Agency. Little Wolf's band, meanwhile, tried to avoid the US military until they were forced to surrender.

Eastman also fails to mention Little Wolf's spiritual standing and how he was considered a kind of incarnation of the great Cheyenne prophet and lawgiver Sweet Medicine (whose story is told in the Cheyenne tale The Life and Death of Sweet Medicine). As a holy man, "Little Wolf was expected to be beyond normal human emotions such as anger" (Nozedar, 266) and, according to those who knew him, he did not disappoint that expectation.

After he surrendered in 1879, Little Wolf took a job as a scout for the US military, and, according to historian Dee Brown (and others), he spent much of his salary, like other Cheyenne scouts now depressed over working for their former enemy, on whiskey (Brown, 348). He was drunk when he shot and killed his friend Starving Elk in December 1880, and, having murdered a fellow Cheyenne, he lost his position as Sweet Medicine Chief and exiled himself from his people. He died of natural causes in 1904 on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana and is buried near Morning Star (Dull Knife) in the Lame Deer cemetery there.