PLANT LORE OF THE NORTHERN CHEYENNE
INTRODUCTION
BY
WILLIAM TALLBULL
The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Elders on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation came to Dull Knife Memorial College and its Board in 1986, to seek help. These Elders and members of the Chief Society gathered together because they had an urgent concern over the loss of the Cheyenne Language, and therefore; a loss of the oral traditions and Cheyenne history for this reservation.
The Elders asked for help, to have someone teach the Cheyenne language and Cheyenne traditional lore. Dull Knife College quickly responded by hiring someone who knew the history and lore and was someone the traditional community felt comfortable with teaching these things. Dull Knife began a program for teaching the Cheyenne language, oral traditions, and plant lore.
I joined this effort by applying for and receiving this teaching position at Dull Knife College. I now teach Oral Traditions and Plant lore.
The past few years have seen an awakening interest in the natural environment, including our native medicines and foods. There has also been a renewed interest and pride in our historical roots and ethnic heritage. Ethobotany - Webster’s dictionary defines Ethno as ... ethnic group or division;" Botany is defined as "the science ... that deals with plants, their life, structure, growth, classification, etc." - this is a timely topic. Hopefully, I have been instrumental in providing a new look at our Native plants which grow here and in the neighboring Big Horns. The past two years I have devoted much time to locating food, ritual, and medicinal plants that were once greatly used by the Cheyenne people. This project has now been completed with this book and specimens put into the archives at Dull Knife Memorial College.
This knowledge of plants is being lost. Many older Cheyennes still have this knowledge and this information is gleaned from them. The picking and dispensing of medicinal plants is still used but alas the young people go to the clinic because it is paid for and young people are not learning the ritual and plants as they should to be practitioners.
I have learned too that the plant lore of the Cheyennes was and is being lost. Using existing material - Grinnell books and notes - and my own experiences as a child learning identification of plants and their uses from my Grandmother Brady, I have set about studying and pre-serving for “my Peoples” this lore.
During the summer of 1928, when I was 8 years old, I lived with my grandparents at their log cabin on Muddy Creek. It was about the middle of June when a man road into our yard telling my grandmother he had been sent to ask for her help for a cancer patient, a cancer medicine which my grandmother had.This was the beginning of my grandmother’s teaching me of plants. She would say that we would be her eyes and would describe the plant and we would be with her to find medicinal plants. She specialized in the treatment of cancer. We learned where these plants could be found and how they were picked and later how they were prepared for use. The names of these plants were the first lesson passed to us. Identity of the plants was next and where they could be found. The taking of a plant had been established long ago and treatment of this plant during plant picking time was a sacred time. Being very careful of treatment of medicine plants was as important as applying or dispensing medicine to a patient.
Many prayers and tobacco were offered to plants during this time. Some plants were picked in the middle of the day and some were picked only when there were no clouds in the sky. Medicine men and women picked certain plants and also certain amounts. Other peoples sometimes picked plants for them and sometimes certain plants were only picked by children.
I wish to preserve the historical and cultural foundation of Cheyenne Oral Traditions and Plant Lore of my people for the survival of future generations. I felt these need to be recorded.
I began researching existing material and went into the nearby hills and identified plants near home, in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the Flying D Ranch out of Bozeman, and around Bear Butte.There was a need to develop a herbarium of food, medicinal and ritual plants. These materials have been recorded and are now stored in the archives at Dull Knife College.
Cheyennes, like other Indian Tribes, used trees and plants as part of their survival. They developed extensive knowledge of food plants, where they could be found, and when they were at their best for picking. They used plants in their renewal ceremonies. They knew that many plants were their medicines. They developed strong spiritual relationships with plants and called them their friends. These relationships exist to this day.
Cheyennes always had deep spiritual relationships with the earth as a Mother and plants and animals were and are our relatives. To maintain these relationships, Cheyennes still strive to be in spiritual harmony with animal and plant life.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank many people who have helped me along the way: Dolly Reno and the Big Horn Herb Society who first helped me with identification of plants, Michelle Girard from the Big Horn Forest Service who took her time to help with plant identi-fication during a summer camp on plant lore, Steve Aaberg, with whom I've spent many hours walking the prairies and mountains in search of an elusive plant. Steve Aaberg also helped in putting correct names to Grinnells Plants and helping with the technical parts of plant identification. To my own People: George Elk Shoulder, Mr. and Mrs. Burton Fisher, Harry and Joyce Little Bird, Fern Spotted Elk, Hazel Kills Night, Lucy Red Cloud, Don Hollowbreast, Harold Fisher and Mike Running Wolf. I would like to also thank Ted and Jane Turner and Cheryl and Bud Griffith of the Flying D Ranch for permission to travel the Ranch and do plant work. I’m sure there are people whom I've forgotten and a special thanks goes to them, also.
A special “thanks much” go to two others, Raymah Brien and Nicole Price. These two ladies have spent countless hours walking, writing, keeping me organized, and typing. I couldn't have done it without their help and dedication.
A special Thanks also needs to go to the National Park Service for the grant that has made all of this possible.
Sincerely,
William Tallbull
Assistant Professor of History at Dull Knife College
Chairman of the Northern Cheyenne Culture Commission