Nebraskaland

Nebraskaland Jan-Feb 2021

NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.

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24 Nebraskaland • January-February 2021 T he Cheyenne Buttes provide one of the most scenic vantage points in the Pine Ridge. They also are forever tied to an event from Fort Robinson State Park's history as a U.S. Cavalry post and got their name from a notorious event. Historians rate the happenings of Jan. 9, 1879, among the most signifi cant events of the Indian Wars. While that day is certainly important, it is just one day among a period of more than three months. The previous October, the Cavalry intercepted 149 Cheyenne warriors, women and children led by Chief Dull Knife, who were attempting to return to their Powder River region homelands from Darlington Agency in Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. After capturing the Cheyennes south of Chadron, the soldiers took them into custody at Fort Robinson. At fi rst, the Cheyennes were allowed to leave the building. By January, however, the situation became dire as offi cials in Washington, D.C., insisted the group return south, and the Native Americans were just as insistent on moving north. The Cheyennes refused to return to the southern agency, which by all accounts had become a hellhole, and the offi cers at Fort Robinson eventually attempted to force them into submission by withholding food, water and fi rewood. The group was determined to escape, and what happened next would come to be known as the Cheyenne Breakout and the "Fort Robinson massacre." At about 9 p.m. on that cold January night, after four days of hunger, the Cheyennes busted through the boarded windows of the log barracks. The escape was aided by weapons they had smuggled into the building, and soldiers guarding the barracks became the fi rst casualties of the event. The Cheyennes followed the banks of the White River until they headed north and scaled the cliff s that would later bear their name. Traveling northwesterly, the landscape of the A bighorn sheep stands atop a picturesque landform visible from the Cheyenne Butte Trail. Bighorns are attracted to the area's many peaks and crags. Chief Dull Knife of the Cheyenne.

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