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.