Cheyenne people

Cheyenne

Total population
22,970 (Northern: 10,840; Southern: 12,130)
Regions with significant populations
United States (Montana, Oklahoma)
Languages
Cheyenne, English, Plains Sign Talk
Religion
traditional tribal religion, Native American Church, and Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Arapaho, Blackfoot, Suhtai, and other Algonquian peoples

The Cheyenne (/ʃaɪˈæn/ shy-AN) are a people of the Great Plains. The language they use, the Cheyenne language, is part of the Algonquian language group. Now, the Cheyenne people are broken into two nations seen by the government: the Southern Cheyenne, who are part of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma, and the Northern Cheyenne, who represent the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (usually spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the Tsétsêhéstâhese (also spelled as Tsitsistas, like [t͡sɪt͡shɪstʰɑs]). The tribes connected in the early 19th century.

At the time of their first European contact, the Cheyenne lived in what is now Minnesota. They were close allies of the Arapaho and loosely aligned with the Lakota. By the early 18th century, they were forced west across the Missouri River and into North and South Dakota, where they adopted the horse culture. After settling the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Powder River Country of present-day Montana and Wyoming, they introduced the horse culture to Lakota people around 1730. With the Arapaho, the Cheyenne pushed the Kiowa to the Southern Plains. In turn, they were pushed west by the more numerous Lakota.