Cheyenne Culture & Commerce Before European Interaction
The Cheyenne’s view of the body was not too far from how they viewed language either. The Cheyenne people viewed their ability to communicate with one another as sacred. Cheyenne people believed that humans were born ignorant and weak, however the ability to speak was power, in terms on knowledge and culture- two things essential for survival. Language to the Cheyenne people was what separated them from animals, because although both man and animal breathed, it was the Cheyenne, or man, who possessed omotome, or breath and word. This is relevant in their oral history as well in the story of the Great Race. The Great Race is the story of how the Cheyenne earned the right to hunt buffalo, and became the only species to communicate verbally, since it was man who won the race, positioning the Cheyenne people above all other living creatures because of the win from the race, because the win meant that animals would lose the ability to communicate the way the Cheyenne people could. This is evidence of how the Cheyenne people made sense of the world around them, how they viewed their people, and their spirituality. This was the culture of a people who had existed in the Great Plains for generations before Europeans and colonists would start to alter their ways of life permanently. Communication would prove to be one of the facets of their culture that kept their survival a reality as the ability to talk to other tribes to create alliances, trade, and interact with European and colonist traders would become even more vital in the not-so-distant future.
The nomadic lifestyle adopted by the Cheyenne and the introduction of horses would only evolve the tribe, and also its trading partners. Although the Cheyenne would have to adapt to the changing world around them due to incoming settler and Europeans, before this problem, the issue of inter-tribal relations was the main focus of their relations with other people in their sacred lands. Tribes like the Sioux, Anishanaabe, and Iroquis expansion westward that forced the Cheyenne to adapt quickly and move to maintain their tribe. Although in the expansion of tribes would force Cheyenne to move, the relationships they had in terms of trading were essential for all tribes who existed in the Great Plains to survive. Tribes in the Great Plains were selective of who they chose to trade with, for example, the Arapahoe traded with the Mandan, and the Cheyenne traded with the Sioux and Arikara. These partnerships would provide not only security in trading of goods, but also protection when it came to outside threats. From 1820-1869 the Cheyenne would ally with the Arapahos and Lakota’s and form a great defense of the plains from other tribes like the Shoshone with their powerful military alliance.
As the Cheyenne utilized horses more frequently, as well as the land of the Great Plains. Tribes like the Cheyenne would use quartzite for knives and arrowheads, buffalo for clothing purposes and meat, deer and elk for hides and horns for bows, all of which were in demand items for these Native tribes. Like all tribes in North America, corn was a vital source of nutrition, the Cheyenne were no different. Below is a map of trade routes in 1775 that shows the connections and paths that these tribes took in regard to commerce. As the Native Americans like Cheyenne would begin to encounter outsiders like Europeans and colonists, trading would take on a different meaning in terms of survival.
