The Sacred Path of Tears by M.B. Tosi

Author:M.B. Tosi [Tosi, M.B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781449721671
Publisher: WestBow Press
Published: 2011-09-29T04:00:00+00:00

If you prick us do we not bleed?

If you tickle us do we not laugh?

If you poison us do we not die?

And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

William Shakespeare

PART THREE

Chapter Sixteen

The Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, or Dog Men (Hotamétaneo’o), were aggressively fierce warriors who played a major role combatting American expansion into the state of Kansas and the territories of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado. Beginning as one of six Cheyenne military societies, it evolved into a separate, militaristic group in the late 1830s, and it often opposed the efforts for peace made by the Cheyenne chiefs, such as Black Kettle of the Council of Forty-four.

Originally, the best warriors in each band of Dog Soldiers were honored with sashes, which they wore in battle. The sashes were long enough to be pinned to the ground by one of the three Sacred Arrows they carried into battle. The significance of this act was to show the Dog Soldier was so courageous he would stand his ground and fight to his death to save his people. Instead of a sash, some bands used to pin themselves to the ground by an unusually long rear panel of each warrior’s breechclout, which was a brief garment consisting of a waistband and a front and rear panel attached to the waistband.

In a new kind of warfare against the white men, however, older traditions gave way to aggressively organized raids, which were quick and brutal, killing settlers, burning buildings, destroying resources, stealing supplies, disrupting commerce, and sometimes kidnapping victims.

All Dog Soldiers still dressed ferociously for battle, their bronzed skin slathered with war paint as well as their ponies. Many were bedecked in head feathers, which represented war honors, and others wore just a few simple breath feathers. The warriors carried an array of battle accoutrements including well-worn plumed spears, bows and arrows, tomahawks, stone-headed clubs, knives, and thick buffalo hide shields. They also carried more modern weapons, such as revolvers and rifles they had stolen.

Not only were they feared for being so violent, they were bent on revenge for the atrocities done to the Indians by the white soldiers, and they had an unyielding mindset to kill without mercy. To them, peace treaties meant nothing as the whites kept changing the rules and breaking treaties of the past. As the Dog Soldiers assumed a more prominent role in the battle against the whites, they eventually gained more respect in the tribe as a whole, especially after continued efforts for peace failed.

The traditional clan system of the Cheyenne began to collapse as early as the cholera epidemic of 1849, which killed thousands of Cheyenne. At the same time, the Dog Soldiers contributed to the breakdown of the traditional matrilineal clan system, where a newly married man moved to the camp of his new wife’s Cheyenne band. The Dog Soldiers began doing the opposite and bringing wives to their own roving camps.

Another thing which contributed to the downfall of the clan system and the emergence of the Dog Soldiers was the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.