Cheyenne Commerce & Culture After: Through the Lens of Lewis and Clark
Because of the social construct and alliances of Native American tribes, Arikara considered the Cheyenne easier to engage in commerce with. Lewis & Clark would also discover how these tribes kept their relationship strong. During the summer months Cheyenne tribespeople would venture to Arikara settlements to reaffirm their bond. Some Cheyenne would stay even into the colder fall season, also observed by the two explorers. These meetings were a way of reestablishing their connection as well as alliances as both tribes had things to offer that the other could not, further building on the dependency of each other to survive in a changing region. Although the times were changing and the interactions with white settlers was becoming more frequent, the reliance of one another to trade goods they both relied on hung on the string of their intertribal relationship with one another- their partnership not only was economical, but it was also an investment in each other to coexist in a friendly and symbiotic harmony. This could also be related to their culture, they were aware of their actions and as adult Cheyenne believed, their development of communication as they grew enable them to see right from wrong, and know better than children, for example, who they believed were not responsible for their actions because they did not know better the way an adult would.
The Cheyenne would rely on the Arikara for the things they could not necessarily provide for themselves since becoming nomadic, indeed the Arikara would rely on the Cheyenne for things they needed as well. The Cheyenne would bring meat and handmade clothing by the women of the Cheyenne. Flour from prairie apples was also another good that the Arikara valued. Cheyenne being excellent at the cultivation of horses made them essential to the Arikara and the Sioux (another tribe the Cheyenne had a good relationship with).
Maheo was not far off when describing how life would change with the integration of horses. Although horses remain a normal farm animal in the United States, horses were not indigenous to North America until European expansion. The introduction of horses changed the culture and lives of the tribes that used them. Tribes like the Arikara were in such dire need for horses, that at one point during Lewis & Clark’s observation of them they were willing to trade “one gun, one hundred rounds of ammunition, and a knife for one horse” One. These transactions illustrate a desperate need for horses, but the relations of all tribes in this area were not as cordial and polite as the Arikara and Cheyenne’s.
Despite the incoming wave of European settlers, there is evidence that tribes like the Cheyenne, Arikara, Sioux, Hidatsa, and Mandau did not want their goods being exchanged by white settlers to the opposing tribes. Charles Mackenzie, a North West Company trader documents an encounter in 1806 with the Hidatsa and Cheyenne encountering each other, and Mackenzie being stuck in the middle of these tribes’ disagreement, with the Hidatsa refusing to let their goods go to the hands of the Cheyenne. Tribes perceived the Cheyenne as "unwilling" to take responsibility for their actions, because when retelling stories of their actions, they went into "third person" telling stories from the perspective of a viewer and not the actual character in the narrative. This was the same for Arikara who viewed other tribes aside from Cheyenne as difficult to trade with, because of their demeanor and cultures. When reading about interactions like these, it is clear there were alliance lines drawn, perceptions and perhaps bias amongst the tribes, but most importantly that they all had a stake in the European trading system. As differening cultures connected, both saw the others in different ways.
