Northern Cheyenne Tribe

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Increasing Access to Literacy and Libraries

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Northern Cheyenne Children and Families

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Purpose

Reading Nation Waterfall is a three year federally funded project working with five Native American tribes across the country. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe is one of those partners and we are working with the Northern Cheyenne Head Start, Lame Deer Elementary, and Woodenlegs Library with three primary goals to: 1) Increase access to books and libraries to children and families, 2) Increase the number of books and reading with parents/adults at home, and 3) Increase relevance and use of libraries for Native American communities. Two primary outcomes are to increase kindergarten entrance and 4th grade reading scores for each partnering tribe. One of our main activities is to provide an unlimited number of free books to children from 0-10 at preschool, elementary school, and their public libraries through strategically placed little free libraries that will be restocked with brand new/gently used librarian curated books every week.

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Total Books Disseminated

Organization	BOOKS DISSEMINATED
Northern Cheyenne Head Start	80
Lame Deer Elementary	5,950
Woodenlegs Library	637
Free Book Fairs	2,935
TOTAL TO DATE (as of June 25, 2024)	9,602

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Little Free Libraries

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Northern Cheyenne Partners

Northern Cheyenne Head Start	Woodenlegs Library	Lame Deer Elementary
Roberta Harris, Director	Adrienne Violett, Director	Joe Roth, Librarian

 

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Visit Your Local Library

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Northern Cheyenne History and Facts

Brief History

The Northern Cheyenne refers to themselves as “Tsis tsis’tas” (Tse-TSES-tas) which means “the beautiful people” or “the people”. The Northern Cheyenne language is derived from the Algonquin language family.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe has approximately 12,266 enrolled tribal members with about 6,012 residing on the reservation. The tribal headquarters are located in Lame Deer, Montana. There are four other districts within the reservation. The Northern Cheyenne Reservation is in southeastern Montana and is approximately 440, 000 acres. The boundaries of the reservation extend from the Tongue River on the east to the Crow Reservation on the west. The Northern Cheyenne are one of ten bands of the Cheyenne tribe spread throughout the Great Plains. 

In 1825, the Cheyenne Tribe split into the Northern and Southern Cheyenne Tribes, with the Northern Cheyenne people moving into eastern Wyoming. Northern Cheyenne people were frequently at war with the US Army over territory. Many Northern Cheyenne were killed in the Sand Creek Massacre. The Northern Cheyenne were able to defeat General Custer in the Battle of Little Big Horn, but continued to fight for their rights to land even after that success. In 1884, the Tongue River Reservation was created for the Northern Cheyenne. The territory was later changed to be called The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

Origin Story

An important origin story for the Northern Cheyenne includes the leader Sweet Medicine and his journey to the Sacred Holy Mountain, today known as Bear Butte. At the mountain, he found a teepee/big lodge and entered. He realized that the elders that he saw were actually gods and that they were there to instruct him on ways to protect his people. He found the Four Sacred Arrows there, two were for hunting and two were for war. They were highly valued by the Northern Cheyenne tribe and used in many ceremonies. Sweet Medicine also gained knowledge in military organization from the elder gods. He later brought back this knowledge to his tribe.

Northern Cheyenne Tribal Website

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Donation News

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Family/Child Literacy Program

At home is where readers are made. Reading Nation Waterfall will provide the books for free but it is essential adults read with their children at home EVERYDAY.

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