The Cheyennes moved onto the plains in the 16th Century probably from an area on the west coast of Lake Michigan. They are Algonquian speakers, a language mostly spoken by tribes in the woodlands of the north east and they may have gradually been moving westward for some time. When they first arrived on the plains and Black Hills area they still practised some farming, but discontinued this and became hunters. They quickly allied themselves with the Arapaho and their chief enemies were the Lakota, who tried to drive them from the plains. In 1851 some Cheyenne and Arapaho moved south. They were frustrated trying to return north by army units attacking them and after the massacres at Sand Creek and the Washita River the remnants of the bands were obliged to settle on a reservation shared with Kiowa, south of the Arkansas.

When most of the Lakota and the remaining (northern) bands of Cheyenne, now allies, surrendered in 1877 at Fort Robinson, they expected to be put on a reservation together but the Cheyennes were taken south to their relatives below the Arkansas. There they found them close to starvation. Leaving their lodges standing they fled in the night back north. They split into two groups led by brothers Little Wolf and Dull Knife. Inevitably both groups encountered more soldiers and skirmishes ensued. These following words were spoken near Fort Keogh by the two brothers.

Eventually the few survivors were permitted to remain in the north on a reservation on Tongue River.

All we ask is to be allowed to live, and live in peace... We bowed to the will of the Great Father and went south. There we found a Cheyenne cannot live. So we came home. Better it was, we thought, to die fighting than to perish of sickness ... You may kill me here; but you cannot make me go back. We will not go. The only way to get us there is to come in here with clubs and knock us on the head, and drag us out and take us down there dead.

Wtahmelapashme (Dull Knife).

We have been south and suffered a great deal down there. Many have died of diseases for which we have no name. Our hearts looked and longed for this country where we were born. There are only a few of us left, and we only wanted a little ground, where we could live. We left our lodges standing, and ran away in the night. The troops followed us. I rode out and told the troops we did not want to fight; we only wanted to go north, and if they would let us alone we would kill no one. The only reply we got was a volley. After that we had to fight our way, but we killed no one who did not fire at us first. My brother, Dull Knife, took one-half of the band and surrendered near Fort Robinson ... They gave up their guns, and then the whites killed them all.

Ohcumgache (Little Wolf).