Ft. Robinson Northern Cheyenne Breakout Committee members and guests visited the monument being built to honor historical achievement. PHOTO BY/Talli Nauman
A monument to Cheyenne martyrs
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor FORT ROBINSON, NE — The 18th annual observance of the Cheyenne Indians’ Jan. 9, 1879 breakout from the former Army barracks jail here brought hope to many who have been working for more than a decade to establish a memorial at the site of the historic event. “The history we heard from our parents is starting to come to light,” said Donald Seminole, a descendant of the prison-escape leader. The memorial “is about to become a reality for the people. It will let them know we had a strong background,” he said during a field trip and anniversary meeting of the Ft. Robinson Northern Cheyenne Breakout Committee. Foremost among the memories of that background is that Chief Morning Star, better known as Chief Dull Knife, was leading a band of some 140 Cheyenne north from their concentration camp in Oklahoma, to their ancestral territory in Montana, when U.S. troops captured and held them without food, water and heat at the fort near present-day Crawford, Nebraska. “On the cold winter night of Jan. 9, 1879, Chief Dull Knife and the Cheyenne people fought their way out” and “began their long, dangerous journey back to their home in the north,” states a committee factsheet about the memorial project. In their flight to survive and the hot pursuit of the troops, 39 men and 22 women and children were killed. “The death toll, as devastating as it was, did not break the strength of the Cheyenne spirit,” says the factsheet. “Although outnumbered by the soldiers and virtually weaponless, the Cheyenne still were able to fight for freedom. “It is important to note that without the courage and determination of those who fought and died, the Cheyenne would cease to exist,” it states. Today, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe consists of more than 10,000 enrolled members, while the members of the Southern Cheyenne, whose predecessors stayed behind in Oklahoma and who share lineage with Arapahos there, number some 12,000. Descendants of the outbreak survivors recall stories of children imprisoned at the barracks using their fingernails to scrape frost from barracks windows to slake their thirst and chewing on leather to stem their hunger. Every year since 1996, schoolchildren from the reservation reenact the breakout with a spiritual relay run from the barracks in Nebraska all the way through South Dakota back to Montana, under the auspices of Dull Knife descendant Phillip Whiteman and his wife Lynnette Two Bulls’ non-profit organization Yellow Bird Inc. The barracks burned down 30 years after the tragic incident and has been replaced with a replica. Now part of the popular Ft. Robinson State Park run by the Nebraska authorities, the new structure includes an outdoor plaque describing what it calls the “Cheyenne Outbreak.” Indoors is a museum display about the event, created by the Nebraska State Historical Society and based on a “History of the Cheyenne” produced by Chief Dull Knife College Culture Center in Lame Deer on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. Oral traditions and various historical accounts note that the people who died in the violence in 1879 were put in a mass grave. The location is thought to be a fort sawdust pit that was the softest place for burial due to the frozen ground of the season. Dull Knife descendant Edna Seminole and her friend Rose Eagle Feathers, who live in a retirement home on the reservation, were moved to tears by the lack of sufficient tribute to the dead when they visited Ft. Robinson in 2000. That was the beginning of the memorial initiative. “I really felt bad,” Seminole told the Native Sun News. “We both cried. I said we should do something about this.” Nebraska bison ranchers Ted “T.R.” and Kay Hughes told them that he had donated a substantial property bordering the state park to the Cheyenne people. Seminole and Eagle Feathers deemed it an apt place for a monument. The committee agreed. Hughes said he bought the land, located on the west side of the barracks along Nebraska Highway 20, in 1982, specifically for the Northern Cheyenne people to own. “I donated 365 acres and sold them the balance of it -- 1,100 acres,” he told the Native Sun News, recalling historical accounts that the escaping Cheyenne fled into the treacherous Cheyenne Buttes on that very same land. Hughes said his purchase and donation was influenced by his adopted brother, the late Ted Rising Sun, who was a Dull Knife descendant. As the monument idea has gathered support, he said, he has seen more manifestations of cultural pride. Twelve years ago, perhaps no more than 20 Northern Cheyenne had visited the breakout site, he said. Now hundreds visit every year. “The monument is a real catalyst for that change,” Hughes observed. Nearly 95-percent completed, the monument has advanced under the guidance of the Ft. Robinson Northern Cheyenne Breakout Committee. The shrine consists of a pipestone-clad obelisk, designed to hold a plaque on each of its four sides and a pyramid-like, stainless-steel, roof-like shape at the top. The symbol of the morning star that adorns the Northern Cheyenne Tribe flag currently tops the structure, and insets of polished black granite are slated for the base. The red of the pipestone, chiseled from the Minnesota quarry by the hands of Rick Hull and transported at no fee by Wisconsin supporters Jay and Sherrie Mullins, strikes a contrasting pose against the stark white pinnacles and green Ponderosa pines of the Cheyenne Buttes landscape. With a concrete and rebar foundation four feet deep and a weight of 9,000 pounds per side, the stocky tower provides a durable focal point for historical and spiritual reflection. The Nebraska Land Trust has placed the property in a conservation easement so it will be protected for posterity. The committee, through the volunteer efforts of Redstone Project Development in Billings, Montana, is seeking $125,000 to complete the centerpiece, and add parking, walkways, signage and seating. “We’re hoping to secure that funding by springtime so we can finish the monument this summer,” Redstone proprietor Major Robinson told the Native Sun News. Future developments could include a hiking trail that follows the breakout route, a pow wow circle, camping facilities, and a buffalo herd, committee members say. The value of the place is not only its historic nature, but also that many people consider it “one of the most beautiful places” in Nebraska, Land Trust Director Dave Sands told the Native Sun News. It also is a lambing grounds for wild Bighorn sheep and equally important for protection of elk and other species. Grassland restoration ecologist Cindy Tolle, of the Hughes’ nearby Rimrock Ranch, says the property could contribute to habitat conservation by forming part of a block of properties for migratory animals, which includes the ranch and the state park. The Nebraska Community Foundation is finalizing paperwork to create the Northern Cheyenne Breakout Legacy Fund to clinch the project. (Contact Talli Nauman, Native Sun News Health and Environment Editor at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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