The Cheyenne were close friends of Arapaho.  They also lived on the Western plains of Nebraska.  The Cheyenne were known as good buffalo hunters and lived in tepees which could easily be moved as they hunted for buffalo.  The Cheyenne numbered about 3,500 in the 1800s.  They are are a proud people who are very much part of the history of Nebraska. 
     The Cheyenne were expert sign-talkers.  They used their hands to talk to other tribes whose language was not like theirs.  Their spoken language was related to the Algonquian language spoken by Native-Americans from the northeastern part of the United States.
     The Cheyenne men were quite tall and thin.  They taught their children about the history of their people using stories in the evenings around the campfires.  They did not have a written history.  The first written historical records came from the explorer Joliet on a map drawn about 1673.  Another record of the Cheyenne was written by the explorer LaSalle when he was in Illinois in February of 1680. Lewis and Clark encountered the Cheyenne in 1804 along the Missouri River. At that time Lewis and Clark said there were about 1,400 to 1,600 people. 
     The Cheyenne used horses and dogs to drag their tepees and other goods from place to place according to Lewis and Clark.  They also told Lewis and Clark that the Sioux Indians had been their enemy for as long as anyone could remember.
     Their food consisted of buffalo, corn, squash, and beans. 
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