Cheyenne Women Warriors of the 19th Century

Mary Tefft White Cultural Center, University Library

Building on so far unpublished archival materials and tribal cultural resources, together with oral histories and personal insights of Northern Cheyenne elders, complemented with existing literature, this presentation explores the phenomenon of women warriors within the Northern Cheyenne tribal nation. Within its traditional horse-based culture, women warriors did not have to conceal their gender identity in order to be able to fight alongside the men in the 19th century (as women fighting within the U.S. wars had to do within the mainstream/White structures). The deeds of the Northern Cheyenne women warriors were often enabled through their highly developed horsemanship skills, which allowed them to sometimes even outdo their male peers, accomplishing in combat situations extraordinary exploits, which their male peers were not able to do, or even willing to attempt. The Northern Cheyenne women warriors were respected and celebrated for their actions, instead of being judged or criticized for assuming roles other than most other women held for most of their lives within the tribal nation. This was facilitated by worldviews and lifeways stemming from the Northern Cheyenne traditional culture, within which horses were a part of every person's life to such an extent, that gender roles boundaries as rigid and non-permeable as typically appeared in the 19th century mainstream/White U.S. society could not really develop.