The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory

Winner of the Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize, Center for Great Plains Studies
A Kansas Notable Book

The exodus of the Northern Cheyennes in 1878 and 1879, an attempt to flee from Indian Territory to their Montana homeland, is an iconic event in American Indian history. It also looms large in the history of towns like Oberlin, Kansas, where Cheyenne warriors killed more than forty settlers. The story has been told by historians and novelists, and on film.

Now James N. Leiker and Ramon Powers examine the recollections of Indians and settlers and their descendants, considering local history, mass media, and literature to draw thought-provoking conclusions. "The Cheyennes' flight," they write, "left white and Indian bones alike scattered along its route from Oklahoma to Montana." The authors depict a West whose diverse peoples-Euro-American and Native American-seek to preserve their heritage through memory and history.

"The authors do not sacrifice the power of the story itself . . . one of the most dramatic, touching, and disturbing of its time."
Elliott West, author of The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story

"Leiker and Powers significantly add to the conversation about how a shared experience of violence solidifies a group and reshapes its identity, particularly for Euro-American settlers."-Journal of American History

"This important book provides a deep look into the historical context of the Cheyennes' flight, the extent of its investigation making it superior to previous scholarship."-Great Plains Quarterly

James N. Leiker, author of Racial Borders: Black Soldiers along the Rio Grande, is Associate Professor of History, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas. Ramon Powers, formerly Executive Director of the Kansas State Historical Society, is author of articles on Plains Indians history.