Sheridan, Wyoming – Border Town
By Clara Caufield
Native Sun News Today Columnist
This week, I ruminate on a subject which Tim Giago has discussed in some of his columns: border towns. By border town we mean those which are close to Indian reservations in the Great Plains area, attracting much trade from reservation residents and home to urban Indians. Sheridan, Wyoming, my current abode, is one, being only about an hour from both the Crow and Cheyenne reservation boundaries.
As border towns go, Sheridan may be one of the best, though, in my opinion, it could improve on relationships with Natives.
Native people, especially the Crow and Cheyenne, have had a long association with Sheridan, Wyoming, named in honor of a famous Indian fighting US General. This was originally Indian country, especially the Crow and Northern Cheyenne, evidenced by several famous battle sites in the nearby area: Fort Fetterman; Wagon Box Fight; Fort Phil Kearney, the Medicine Wheel while the Rosebud and Little Bighorn Battlefields in nearby Montana are only a hop, skip and jump away, now officially designated historical sites, serving as tourist attractions, financial benefit to the general Sheridan economy. Native people don’t generally share in such financial benefit, but often visit these sites. That ain’t about the money.
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What I relate now is based on the oral tradition (what has been told to me). The official ‘white’ narratives may differ, but I go with the Cheyenne version. The Native people of this area have had long association with Sheridan, especially for trade. My late Grandma Kinzel and even Linwood Tallbull, now an esteemed Cheyenne elder and story-teller liked to tell of the wagon trips they made to Sheridan several times a year for supplies. For the Cheyenne it was a two-day and one-way journey, requiring camping, providing opportunity for berry-picking, fishing, hunting and when close to town, raiding the local dump, always a source of good finds. “You just can’t believe what those crazy white people threw away,” Linwood chuckled.
At that time (until the 1960’s and 70’) not many Natives lived in Sheridan. A notable exception was Julia Wild Hog, a Northern Cheyenne woman who had voluntarily exiled herself from the Tribe, taking residence in a small shack on the outskirts of town, living alone, scrabbling out a living. a long-time-ago dumpster diver. Julia was a daughter of a famous Cheyenne chief, Little Wolf, so the mystery is why she lived in Sheridan. She became a well-known character in the community, befriended by area ranchers and residents who would provide the offal from cattle slaughter and sometimes gifts of firewood in the cold seasons and Cheyenne relatives would often call on their trips to town, bringing gifts.
Though her life was certainly harsh, she has now been transformed into local legend, her long life brought-to-an-end when killed by a speeding driver on a busy street (not then considered a crime by that deadly white driver, of course). Since then, her colorful story has been featured in local newspaper stories, her photo now gracing several local museums and even some marketing brochures, a good example of historic local color. I and a genealogy-focused cousin are now researching Julia in hopes of providing a more accurate picture of this amazingly resourceful Native woman.
Provisioning themselves, favorite stops were the local butcher shops and the slaughterhouse where they could get all of the offal (intestines, tripe, livers, hearts brains hooves and even hides) that they could handle. Of course, they had to camp outside of town, some kind Sheridan folk allowing that on their property. A current elderly friend and life-long Sheridan resident, Maxine, remembers when the Indians would camp at their place; she played with little dark girls, making friendships which endure until this day, thus Maxine tries to never miss Crow Fair.
“I wanted to be an Indian and they wanted to be like me, a rowdy blonde,” she laughs.
Clara Caufield can be reached at a cheyennevoice@gmail.com.
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