Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation

Recognizing this fact, on August 10, 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant issued an executive order to set aside lands instead on the North Fork of the Canadian River for the tribes, closer to their territory.

Congress appropriated inadequate funds for support of the reservations, and poor quality cattle were sold to the government.

Texas cattlemen illegally grazed thousands of cattle on the reservation, but refused to sell any to the Indian agent.

In September 1878, a band under the leadership of Dull Knife and Little Wolf escaped and fled north, in what became known as the Northern Cheyenne Exodus.

It took several years for the US Indian agent and these farmers to develop and learn basic techniques of dryland farming to handle the difficult conditions, such as conserving winter moisture.

Gradually more children were enrolled in the Indian boarding schools on the reservation and at Carlisle Institute in Pennsylvania.

Shortages of rations continued, and the Indian agent had few resources available to develop work opportunities for his charges.

John DeBras Miles, the Indian agent, called a council of chiefs and cattlemen on December 12, 1882 to consider grazing permits, and believed he had obtained the consent of the vast majority of the representatives of the tribes.

[7] The lands granted by the Treaty of Medicine Lodge were extensive, setting aside a substantial portion of western Oklahoma for the exclusive use of the Cheyenne and Arapaho.

...The United States now solemnly agrees that no persons except those herein authorized so to do, and except such officers, agents, and employés of the Government as may be authorized to enter upon Indian reservations in discharge of duties enjoined by law, shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in the territory described in this article....[8]In 1890, the United States, operating through the agency of the Cherokee Commission, acting under the provisions of the Dawes Act, broke the treaty.

The two tribes are referred to in Oklahoma as the Southern Cheyenne and the Southern Arapaho, a reference intended to distinguish them from their respective northern divisions on reservations in Montana (Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation) and Wyoming (Wind River), respectively.

Members of the Northern Arapaho who live on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming call the Oklahoma group Nawathi'neha or "Southerners."

The twelve chiefs were Jesse Rowlodge, David Meat, John Hoof, Dan Blackhorse, Ben Spotted Wolf, Bill Williams, Wilburn Tabor, John Sleeper, Annanita Washee, Scott Youngman, Saul Birdshead, and Theodore Haury.

Two Cheyenne were elected by custom to serve as Arapaho chiefs, Ben Buffalo and Ralph Whitetail.