Sociology, Department of
Date of this Version
1997
Citation
Hill, Michael R. 1997. “Cheyenne Autumn, by Mari Sandoz.” Pp. 204-207 in Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Literature, Supplement, edited by Frank N. Magill and Tracy Irons-Georges. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press.
Abstract
Cheyenne Autumn is an unflinching historical portrait of a people confronting physical extermination and cultural annihilation at the hands of duplicitous government forces. This work is structurally a chapter-by-chapter chronicle of a Cheyenne outbreak starting in Oklahoma and ending in the surrender of Little Wolf and his followers hundreds of miles and six months later in Montana. The northern Cheyennes of the Yellowstone region are promised land, food, and protection in treaties signed by the U.S. Government. These agreements, however, are repeatedly and brutally broken by the government.
Hundreds of northern Cheyennes agree, under government coercion, to removal to Oklahoma on condition that they can later return north if they choose. Finding the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma unacceptable, Little Wolf leads his people back to the Yellowstone region. In returning north, the Little Wolf Cheyennes face massive resistance and retaliation by the U.S. Army. The Cheyennes’ struggle to return home is a study in human contrasts: of loyalty and betrayal, resolve and hesitation, mutual cooperation and unthinkable brutality. Sandoz describes a native culture placed under extreme and unpardonable duress by a dominant white society motivated by greed, fear, and the changing winds of popular opinion.
Comments
Copyright 1997 Michael R. Hill