"From classic Western movies and earlier books, the story is familiar.

More than 350 Northern Cheyennes fled a reservation in present-day Oklahoma traveling north toward their homeland in Montana, dodging Army cavalry patrols but raiding farms and killing settlers in western Kansas.

What you call it depends on who you are, authors Ramon Powers and James N. Leiker wrote in their new book, "The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory."

"Western Kansans call it the ‘Last Indian Raid,' a local story with the slain ancestors of white settlers as the central victims," the authors wrote.

Northern Cheyennes call it "the breakout," when the Army "shot down Dull Knife's followers and when ancestors sacrificed their lives for the tribe's survival.""

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Book adds context to Cheyenne exodus (The Topeka Capital-Journal 2/25)