A gift of one thousand white women is what a Northern Cheyenne chief requested of U.S. Army authorities at a peace conference at Fort Laramie in 1854. He wanted them as wives for his warriors because he came from a matrilineal society and he recognized the white man represented a new world which held no place for Native Americans. Because all children born Cheyenne belonged to the mother’s tribe if she was not Cheyenne, in addition to belonging to the Cheyenne, this request seemed the perfect solution to assimilation into the white man’s new world.
1,000 white women
01 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in American history, at work, daily life, wildlife, writing
