Oral Histories of Northern Cheyenne Descendants of the Battle of Little Bighorn, 1985-1987

Title: Oral Histories of Northern Cheyenne Descendants of the Battle of Little Bighorn, 1985-1987

ID: OH 020

Primary Creator: Jackson, Royal G.

Extent: 0.4 cubic feet. More info below.

Arrangement:

The materials described in this collection have been arranged into two series, one describing the collection's audiocassettes and a second the collection's final report and published transcripts. An alphabetical view of the oral history interviewees whose recordings and transcripts are held in this collection is as follows:

Bement, Eldora (September 18, 1986) Big Head, August (October 3, 1985) Brady, Raymond, Sr. (September 9, 1986) Glenmore, Josephine (September 17, 1985) Knows Gun, Sylvester, Sr. (September 11, 1986) Limpy, Henry (September 11, 1986) Little Wolf, Gilbert (September 17, 1985) Medicine Bull, Bert (October 10, 1985) Rising Sun, Ted (September 9, 1986) Roundstone, Martin (September 16, 1985) Rowland, Allen (October 13, 1985) Shoulderblade, Issac (October 1, 1985) Shoulderblade, Jim (September 26, 1985) Sioux, Henry (September 22, 1985) Spotted Wolf, Clarence (September 16, 1986) Stands in Timber, Elva (October 6, 1985) Walks Along, Joe (September 13, 1985) White Dirt, Charlie (September 22, 1985) White Wolf, Fred (September 30, 1985) Wolf Black, Charlie (October 10, 1985)

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

Abstract

The Oral Histories of Northern Cheyenne Descendants of the Battle of Little Bighorn collection documents a project, led in the mid-1980s by Oregon State University professor Royal Jackson, that sought to capture the perspective of contemporary Northern Cheyenne tribal members on the famous 1876 battle between certain of their ancestors and the U.S. 7th Cavalry, led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. The interviews held in this collection also lend extensive insight into the changes experienced by the Northern Cheyenne people throughout the twentieth century and provide a snapshot of the Northern Cheyenne as they viewed themselves in the mid-1980s. All of the collection's audiocassettes and transcript volumes have been digitized, and are available upon patron request.

Scope and Content Notes

The Custer Battlefield National Monument Oral History Program was led by OSU Forestry professor Royal Jackson from 1985-1987. The project was funded by a grant provided by the University of Wyoming's National Park Service Research Center. The stated goal of the program was "to examine and document the Battle of Little Bighorn and its place in the Northern Cheyenne memory and tribal past, as it has been transmitted through the oral tradition to the present generation. The early reservation era and Cheyenne history and culture were secondary subthemes also explored in these conversations." Examination of the collection's materials likewise indicates that the contemporary self-image of the Northern Cheyenne was a major theme for Jackson and his twenty interviewees, with alcoholism, the erosion of traditional values and the future of the tribe, among other subjects of the day, appearing as frequent topics of conversation.

Jackson conducted all of his interviews in September and October 1985, and September 1986. Interviews were recorded at several locations throughout the state of Montana including Ashland, Birney, Busby, Lame Deer (headquarters of the Tongue River Reservation) and Muddy Creek. In addition to the topics mentioned above, interviews often touched upon the federal policy of land allotment, education and forced assimilation, the "long walk" from Oklahoma, natural resource use, strip mining, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Of his interview subjects, Jackson wrote: "The oldest informant was 79 years old; the youngest was 56. The average age of the 20 interviewees was about 65....All were born in Montana and for most of them their place of birth was on the reservation. A few left for a short period of military service, education, or to work elsewhere, but all of them have lived the largest part of their lives on the reservation....In almost all cases there was a strong and well-defined family linkage between the informant and a participant in the Battle of Little Bighorn." All interviews but one were conducted in English; in the case of the lone exception (Charlie White Dirt), the interview was conducted with the assistance of an interpreter conversant in the native tongue of the Northern Cheyenne.

The collection's interviews are contained on 28 audiocassettes, all of which have been digitized and are available upon patron request. Copies of these cassettes were deposited with the Superintendent of the Custer Battlefield National Monument, Crow Agency, Montana and with the library at Dull Knife Memorial College in Lame Deer, Montana. An additional set of audiocassettes was donated to the Horner Museum at Oregon State University and subsequently transferred to the OSU Archives upon the museum's closure in 1996.

In addition to the audiocassettes, the collection consists of four published volumes - a final report and three volumes of transcripts. Jackson's final report contains an introduction to the project, a discussion of project methodology, a summary of project findings - grouped under the headings "Early Reservation Era," "Cheyenne History and Culture," and "The Battle of Little Bighorn and Associated Mythology" - reproductions of signed release forms, a sample informant letter and indices to all three volumes of transcripts. The reports and transcripts held in this collection have been digitized to PDF and are available upon researcher request.

Biographical / Historical Notes

The Battle of Little Bighorn took place on July 25-26, 1876 near the Little Bighorn River in what is now southern Montana. Sometimes referred to as "Custer's Last Stand," the encounter pit the 7th Cavalry of the United States Army, under the command of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, versus a collection of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors. The 7th Cavalry sustained severe losses as a result of the encounter - its casualty count ultimately tallied to 268 dead and 55 injured, over half the total roster of the regiment. Among those whose lives were claimed was Lt. Custer as well as every soldier fighting in the five companies alongside him. Estimates of Native American casualties vary widely, but the battle is almost universally remembered as having been an overwhelming victory for the Native American alliance; a victory that was, at least in part, brought about by major tactical mistakes made by Custer in commanding his troops. Custer was a flamboyant and celebrated figure who had achieved fame for decorations earned during the American Civil War. His death, combined with the heavy defeat suffered by the 7th Cavalry, rendered the Battle of Little Bighorn both an extremely newsworthy event during its time and a continuing source of fascination within American popular culture.

The Cheyenne people are believed to have established themselves as a tribe in the early 1500s. Originally based in the Great Lakes region of present-day Minnesota, the Cheyenne migrated west, eventually settling in what is now Montana. By the 19th century, the Cheyenne nation had grown quite substantially, populating a great expanse across the midwestern United States. Throughout the century the Cheyenne were commonly at war: first against the Crow people - traditional enemy of the Cheyenne - and later against the United States Army. In the aftermath of the Black Hills War of 1876-1877, the Northern Cheyenne were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma - home of the Southern Cheyenne - by the United States government. The tribe, unaccustomed to this new environment, fared very poorly and in 1878 a fragment of the Northern Cheyenne returned to their ancestral homeland, settling in the Powder River Basin of southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming. In 1884 the 444,000-acre Tongue River Indian Reservation, located in southeastern Montana, was established by U.S. President Chester A. Arthur. The reservation has served as home to the Northern Cheyenne people ever since.

Royal G. Jackson was a faculty member in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University from 1970 until his retirement in 2004. Jackson taught courses in recreation resource management and nature-based tourism; his research interests included forest history, nature-based tourism, and protected area management. He pursued research projects in the western United States and in Costa Rica. As part of his research, Jackson conducted numerous oral history projects pertaining to the history of forestry, specifically, the Oregon State University College of Forestry and the Research Forests (McDonald and Dunn Forests); the Soap Creek Valley in Benton County, Oregon; Basques in Harney County, Oregon; the diversification of a resource-based economy in Deschutes County, Oregon, to include tourism; the Winema National Forest; the Battle of Little Bighorn from the perspective of the Northern Cheyenne descendants; and the environmental movement and ecotourism in Cost Rica. Jackson earned his BA in 1960 from the University of New Mexico, an MA in 1965 from Western New Mexico University, and his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1971.

Administrative Information

More Extent Information: 28 audiocassettes; 2 boxes

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.

Acquisition Note: These oral histories were originally part of the Horner Museum Oral History Collection (OH 10). In 2013 they were separated out and described as a new collection.

Related Materials: This collection is a component of the Oregon Multicultural Archives, which documents the lives and activities of African American, Asian American, Latino and Native American communities of Oregon. Researchers interested in the Native American oral tradition may wish to consult the Oregon Native American Language Sound Recordings (OH 012) collection, which documents the Tolowa and Tututni languages indigenous to the Siletz and Coquille tribes. The Royal G. Jackson Papers (MSS JacksonR) are also held by the Special Collections and Archives Research Center.

Preferred Citation: Oral Histories of Northern Cheyenne Descendants of the Battle of Little Bighorn (OH 020), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Creators

People, Places, and Topics

Bement, Eldora
Big Head, August
Brady, Raymond
Cheyenne Indians--Montana.
Custer, George A. (George Armstrong), 1839-1876
Glenmore, Josephine, 1920-1990
Indians of North America--Wars--Great Plains.
Knows Gun, Sylvester
Lame Deer (Mont.)
Limpy, Henry
Little Bighorn, Battle of the, Mont., 1876.
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (Agency: U.S.)
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (Mont.)
Little Wolf, Gilbert
Medicine Bull, Bert
Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation (Mont.)--History.
Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation (Mont.)--Social conditions.
Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana--History.
Oregon Multicultural Archives
Risingsun, Ted, 1926-1995
Roundstone, Martin
Rowland, Allen
Shoulderblade, Issac
Shoulderblade, James.
Sioux, Henry
Spotted Wolf, Clarence
Stands in Timber, Elva
United States. Army. Cavalry, 7th.
University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Center
Walks Along, Joe
White Dirt, Charlie
White Wolf, Fred
Wolf Black, Charlie