Hoebel, The Cheyennes: Indians Of The Great Plains Essay

E. Adamson Hoebel’s The Cheyennes: Indians of the Great Plains is a detailed, comprehensive ethnographic study of the tribe’s beliefs, practices, and adaptation to their harsh environment. Though not the strongest Plains people, the Cheyenne used their strengths to overcome their obstacles and maintain a cohesive, stable culture. A sedentary village culture of the Algonquian language family, the Cheyenne moved from the upper Mississippi valley to the high plains of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming around 1800 to escape the hostilities of the neighboring Lakota (5). Their settled ways were disrupted and they became horse-riding and nomadic, leaving behind their village ways. Hoebel depicts their culture as structured yet flexible, â€Å"rational and skilled in cultural adaptation† (103), and geared toward internal harmony as a means of maintaining cohesion. The harsh plains environment, with extreme weather and little water or wood, â€Å"is the essential ecological fact controlling the Cheyenne† (63). They adapted to this by becoming mobile, moving according to where resources could be easily obtained, mastering their gathering, hunting, and trading skills over a wide area, and relying heavily on horses. Their religion is hierarchical, with being at all levels endowed with spiritual powers. Spirits can manifest in human form and their attributes lie in their knowledge of how to operate within the universe. Hoebel writes that the Cheyenne believe â€Å"the universe if essentially a mechanical system which is good in essence, but which must be properly understood and used to keep it producing what humans need† (89). They see the universe mechanically, with spirits responding somewhat predictably according to human acts. To survive in their dry grassland environment, the Cheyenne divided their labor rigidly along gender lines. The women gathered roots, berries, and seeds while also foraging for wood, raising and mending tipis, while the men hunted big game (mainly bison, antelope, and elk) for meat and smaller animals (wolves and fox) for fur. Gender roles govern not only labor, but also most areas of Cheyenne social life. Males and females generally stop mixed-sex socializing at adolescence, and males join any of five military clubs once they reach fighting age, while women have only the Robe Quillers (an outgrowth of their role as makers of clothing). However, some deviation exists – â€Å"Contraries† become transvestites while overdoing the warrior role, while â€Å"halfmen-halfwomen† are homosexual. (Both are isolated yet tolerated. ) The Cheyenne economic system relied heavily on trade, though because of their location on the high plains they had limited access to many traders. They often served as intermediaries between poorer and richer tribes, traveled great distances to trade their meat and vegetable goods (as well as robes and leather goods) for more food, as well as ornamental items like beads and silver jewelry. Their most important commodity was the horse, often acquired in trade or stolen from enemies in raids. Cheyenne politics were organized by family, kindred, and band, and governed by the tribal council, where power lay â€Å"not in the hands of aggressive war leaders but under the control of even-tempered peace chiefs† (43). Composed mainly of older men elected for ten-year terms, the council worked to resolve internal conflicts, which were considered more threatening than war, and had a nearly supernatural authority. A head priest-chief (the Sweet Medicine Chief) and five medicine chiefs presided and had control over most rituals. Hoebel’s study examines most major areas of the Cheyennes’ lives and depicts them as a tribe that survived not by overwhelming power, but by adapting well to a demanding environment, trading as well as possible, and maintaining internal harmony and stability. Hoebel, E. Adamson. The Cheyennes: Indians of the Great Plains. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978.