The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation is located in present-day southeastern Montana, a mere 25 miles from the Little Big Horn Battlefield.  Below are some facts and activities we are involved with on their land.

Red Feather's Impact

Red Feather has been working on the homelands of the Tsitsistas and So’taeo’o people of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe since 2001.  The reservation is located in rugged southeast Montana, bounded by the Tongue River to the east and the Crow Indian Reservation to the west.  We have built straw bale houses, made numerous homes warmer through weatherization, repaired multiple dwellings and educated dozens of tribal residents with Do-It-Yourself workshops benefitting women, veterans, youth, and other community members. 

Tribal History

Following their surrender to General Crook, the Northern Cheyenne were sent to Oklahoma to join their southern relatives.  The northern tribe was not accustomed to the hot conditions of western Oklahoma (Indian Territory at the time), and the northerners began dying rapidly.   In desperation, a small band left the southern reservation lead by Chiefs Morning Star (Dull Knife) and Little Wolf in a bid to return to their northern home in 1878, an odyssey now commemorated every January with the Fort Robinson Breakout Run.

Quick Facts

• 444,000 acres in size with 99% tribal ownership
• Home to the Tsitsistas and So’taeo’o people (bands of Cheyenne)
• Divided into five districts: Ashland, Birney, Busby, Lame Deer and Muddy districts
• 10,840 enrolled tribal members with about 4,939 residing on the reservation
• 526 households on the reservation of which 44% have children under the age of 18 living with them
• 68% speak English as their first language with 29% speaking Cheyenne and 3% speaking Crow.
• The median income for a Northern Cheyenne family is $19,821.  
• 50% of the population lives below the poverty line. 

The Northern Cheyenne are comprised of ten bands, spread all over the Great Plains, from southern Colorado to the Black Hills in South Dakota. The economy is primarily supported by the federal and tribal governments, farming and ranching, and other privately-owned businesses. The tribal government is the largest employer on the reservation.  A historical buffalo jump, monuments to Chief Two Moons and Ice, and the site of Custer’s last camp before the Battle of the Greasy Grass (a/k/a Little Bighorn) are located on their reservation.  Lame Deer is tribal capital and home of a Fourth of July Powwow.  

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