Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma

```mediawiki The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma are two federally recognized Native American nations whose ancestral homelands encompassed vast regions of the Great Plains, including present-day Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Their primary tribal headquarters and reservation lands are located in Concho, Oklahoma, in Canadian County, though the Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples maintain deep historical and cultural connections to Colorado, where both nations developed their distinctive cultures for centuries before forced removal in the nineteenth century. The two tribes maintain a government-to-government relationship with the United States and continue to govern their respective nations through sovereign tribal institutions. As of 2023, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma represent approximately 12,000 enrolled members living in Oklahoma and across the United States, working to preserve language, traditions, and historical memory of their ancestral territories in the Rocky Mountain region and the High Plains.

History

Origins and Early History

The Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples developed as distinct tribal nations over centuries of habitation across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence indicates that the Cheyenne migrated westward from the Great Lakes region during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, eventually settling in present-day Colorado, Wyoming, and the surrounding plains. The Arapaho similarly migrated to the central Great Plains and developed a closely aligned culture with the Cheyenne, establishing trade relationships, military alliances, and intermarriage that bound the two nations closely together. Both tribes became skilled equestrian hunters and warriors following the introduction of horses to North America, developing sophisticated societies organized around buffalo hunting, seasonal movement, and spiritual practices tied to the natural cycles of the plains.

Treaties and the Erosion of Tribal Lands

The nineteenth century brought profound disruption to both nations as Euro-American settlement expanded into their territories. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 attempted to define tribal boundaries and establish peaceful coexistence, but settlers and the U.S. government systematically violated its terms. A decade later, the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861 dramatically reduced Cheyenne and Arapaho lands, confining the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho to a small reservation in southeastern Colorado Territory. Tribal leaders who signed that treaty faced sharp criticism from those who saw it as a betrayal of communal land rights. Conflict intensified through the early 1860s as gold rush settlers pushed deeper into Cheyenne and Arapaho territory, and the U.S. government struggled or refused to enforce treaty protections.

Sand Creek Massacre

The 1860s marked the most devastating period in Cheyenne and Arapaho history. On November 29, 1864, Colorado volunteer militia under the command of Colonel John Chivington attacked a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. The encampment, led by Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, had gathered under the impression that it was under U.S. government protection, with tribal leaders having recently met with military officials in Denver. Chivington's force, composed primarily of the Third Colorado Cavalry Regiment, killed between 150 and 230 people, the majority of them women, children, and elderly. It wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter.

The massacre produced outrage in some quarters in Washington and generated a congressional investigation, but Chivington faced no criminal prosecution. For the Cheyenne and Arapaho, Sand Creek became the central trauma in tribal memory, one that shapes identity and politics to the present day. Survivors scattered across the plains, and the attack catalyzed continued warfare and resistance across the southern plains. The Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 subsequently assigned the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho to a reservation in Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma, in exchange for relinquishing their claims to the central Great Plains.

Relocation and Reservation Period

Conflict continued across the southern plains even after Medicine Lodge. In November 1868, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry attacked a Cheyenne encampment along the Washita River in present-day Oklahoma, killing Chief Black Kettle, who had survived Sand Creek just four years earlier, along with dozens of his people. The Battle of the Washita effectively broke the capacity of the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho to maintain their way of life on the open plains. By the early 1870s, military campaigns had confined both nations to a reservation in western Oklahoma Territory centered near present-day Darlington and Concho. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 separately assigned the Northern Cheyenne to the Tongue River Reservation in Montana, creating a geographic division between the northern and southern branches of the Cheyenne Nation that persists today. Despite removal from their ancestral Colorado lands, both tribes maintained cultural and familial connections across those regional boundaries.

Allotment and the Twentieth Century

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought further disruption through federal allotment policies. The Jerome Agreement of 1890 opened the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation to non-Indian homesteaders, dramatically reducing the tribal land base and scattering individually allotted parcels across western Oklahoma. Communal landholding, central to both nations' economic and cultural life, was largely destroyed. Throughout the twentieth century, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes worked within the constraints of the reservation system and shifting federal Indian policy, including the termination era of the 1950s and the self-determination era that followed the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, to rebuild tribal governmental institutions and reclaim a measure of sovereignty over their own affairs.

Government and Sovereignty

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma operate as a unified tribal government under a constitution that provides for an executive branch led by a governor and lieutenant governor, a legislative branch composed of a tribal council, and a judicial branch with independent tribal courts. The tribal government is headquartered in Concho, Oklahoma, in Canadian County, where the tribes maintain administrative offices, social services, and cultural facilities. Tribal members elect their governor and council representatives in regular elections, and the government maintains a government-to-government relationship with the United States, interacting directly with federal agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service.

The tribal government exercises sovereignty over tribal lands and members across a range of areas including law enforcement, courts, education, healthcare, and environmental regulation, reflecting the broader framework of tribal self-determination established in federal law and affirmed through decades of legal development. Governor Reggie Wassana has served as a prominent public voice for the tribes in recent years, particularly on land rights and federal legislative matters affecting tribal sovereignty. The tribes don't operate in isolation from the broader federal system, but they increasingly assert the full range of powers that federal recognition and tribal constitutions afford them.

Land and Territory

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes hold trust lands scattered across several counties in western Oklahoma, including Canadian, Blaine, Custer, Dewey, and Roger Mills counties. The fragmented nature of the tribal land base reflects the legacy of the allotment era, during which the original reservation was broken into individual parcels and surplus lands sold to non-Indian settlers. Efforts to consolidate and expand the tribal land base through federal trust acquisitions remain ongoing, and land issues represent a persistent area of engagement between the tribes and the federal government.

Fort Reno Land Dispute

One of the most significant contemporary land disputes involves Fort Reno, a former U.S. Army post located in Canadian County near El Reno, Oklahoma. Fort Reno was established in 1874 adjacent to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency and sits on land that the tribes have long asserted should be returned to them as part of their historical territory. The property has been managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an agricultural research station, but its long-term federal status has been contested for decades.

The dispute intensified when draft farm bill legislation included provisions that would permanently block any transfer of Fort Reno to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Tribal leadership opposed those provisions forcefully. Governor Reggie Wassana publicly condemned them, arguing that they represent a continued pattern of legislative action that undermines tribal land rights and circumvents the government-to-government relationship the tribes maintain with the United States. The Fort Reno dispute remains active and is one of the most visible ongoing land rights issues for the tribes in the contemporary period.

Culture

The Cheyenne and Arapaho maintain distinctive cultural practices rooted in their historical experience as Great Plains peoples and shaped by centuries of spiritual and social traditions. Language preservation is a central cultural priority for both tribes, though decades of federal policies suppressing Native languages created serious challenges that haven't been fully overcome. The Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family and possesses a complex grammatical structure reflecting the depth of traditional Cheyenne culture. The Arapaho language similarly belongs to the Algonquian family and retains archaic linguistic features that scholars recognize as significant for understanding historical linguistics and cultural identity. Both tribes operate language immersion programs and educational initiatives to revitalize linguistic knowledge among younger generations, recognizing language as fundamental to cultural continuity and spiritual practice.

Spiritual traditions and ceremonial practices remain central to Cheyenne and Arapaho identity and community life. The Sun Dance ceremony, performed annually by both tribes, represents one of the most sacred religious observances, involving fasting, ritual sacrifice, and community renewal. The Cheyenne maintain the Sacred Arrows and the Sacred Buffalo Hat as sacred objects central to tribal spiritual identity and governance. The Arapaho maintain their own sacred traditions and ceremonial calendars that mark seasonal and spiritual cycles. Both tribes practice traditional crafts including beadwork, hide tanning, and regalia creation, with distinctive artistic styles that reflect each nation's aesthetic traditions. Art, music, and dance continue to flourish within tribal communities, adapting to modern contexts while maintaining historical authenticity and spiritual significance. Contemporary tribal members engage in powwows, cultural demonstrations, and educational programs that transmit cultural knowledge and maintain connection to ancestral traditions.

Economy

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma maintain a mixed economy incorporating tribal enterprises, individual employment, natural resource revenue, and federal trust responsibilities. Historically, the tribes depended on buffalo hunting and trade as primary economic activities until the late nineteenth century, when forced settlement on reservations required adaptation to agricultural and pastoral economies. That transition was neither easy nor voluntary.

Contemporary tribal economies incorporate gaming operations, which have become significant revenue sources for tribal governments and programs. The Cheyenne and Arapaho operate gaming facilities that generate funding for tribal services, healthcare, education, and infrastructure development. Like many federally recognized tribes, the Cheyenne and Arapaho manage trust lands and natural resources, including mineral resources that provide ongoing revenue. Agricultural operations continue on tribal and individually allotted lands, though productivity remains constrained by land quality and climate factors.

Employment and business development remain priorities for both tribal nations as they work to reduce poverty and create economic opportunity for tribal members. The tribes operate business enterprises including hospitality services, retail operations, and service industries that provide employment to tribal and non-tribal workers. Federal trust responsibility creates distinct relationships with the U.S. government regarding healthcare, education, and social services, with funding allocated through federal agencies and tribal appropriations. Tourism related to historical sites, cultural events, and powwows generates supplementary revenue and creates opportunities to share tribal history and culture with broader audiences. Both tribes continue to work toward economic self-determination while maintaining connection to traditional lifeways and values that prioritize community welfare alongside economic growth.

Sand Creek Massacre Recognition and Commemoration

The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was established by Congress in 2000 and is administered by the National Park Service in cooperation with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and other affiliated tribal nations, including the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and the Northern and Southern Arapaho. Located in Kiowa County, Colorado, on the site of the 1864 attack, the historic site serves as a place of mourning, education, and reconciliation. Tribal members participate formally in the site's interpretation and management as part of a partnership with the federal government, ensuring that tribal perspectives shape how the event is presented to the public.

Annual commemorative events, including a horse ride to the site, bring tribal members together to honor those who were killed and to reaffirm cultural and historical memory. The Sand Creek Massacre Foundation, a nonprofit organization, supports these efforts and works to build awareness of the massacre's significance in both Native and non-Native communities. Recognition of Sand Creek as a federal historic site didn't