Cheyenne Medicine Woman

[jones]

I’ve often wondered if John Bidwell’s reminiscence of his emigrant train to California was realistic as to his assertion that the Cheyennes that were encountered on the Blue River were a war party just because they had a medicine woman with them.

tile.loc.gov/storage-services//service/gdc/calbk/046.pdf
THE FIRST EMIGRANT TRAIN TO CALIFORNIA.
By JOHN BIDWELL (Pioneer of '41).
Page 13
For a time, until we reached the Platte River, one day was much like another. We set forth every morning and camped every night, 19 detailing men to stand guard. Captain Fitzpatrick and the missionary party would generally take the lead and we would follow. Fitzpatrick knew all about the Indian tribes, and when there was any danger we kept in a more compact body, to protect one another. . . The first incident was a scare that we had from a party of Cheyenne Indians just before we reached the Platte River, about two weeks after we set out. One of our men, who chanced to be out hunting, some distance from the company and behind us, suddenly appeared without mule, gun or pistol, and lacking most of his clothes, and in great excitement reported that he had been surrounded by thousands of Indians. The company, too, became excited, and Captain Fitzpatrick tried, but with little effect, to control and pacify them. Every man started his team into a run, till the oxen, like the mules and horses, were in a full gallop. Captain Fitzpatrick went ahead and directed them to follow, and as fast as they came to the bank of the river he put the wagons in the form of a hollow square, and had all the animals securely picketed within. After a while the Indians came in sight. There were only forty of them, but they were well mounted on horses, and were evidently a war party, for they had no women except one, a medicine woman.

Frederic Remington sketched an illustration (linked below) of those Cheyennes for The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Volume 41
November 1890 to April 1891
books.google.com/books?id=BH4gAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA116

[gregor]

Jun 17, 2024 21:02:58 GMT -5 jones said:

I’ve often wondered if John Bidwell’s reminiscence of his emigrant train to California was realistic as to his assertion that the Cheyennes that were encountered on the Blue River were a war party just because they had a medicine woman with them.

tile.loc.gov/storage-services//service/gdc/calbk/046.pdf
THE FIRST EMIGRANT TRAIN TO CALIFORNIA.
By JOHN BIDWELL (Pioneer of '41).
Page 13
For a time, until we reached the Platte River, one day was much like another. We set forth every morning and camped every night, 19 detailing men to stand guard. Captain Fitzpatrick and the missionary party would generally take the lead and we would follow. Fitzpatrick knew all about the Indian tribes, and when there was any danger we kept in a more compact body, to protect one another. . . The first incident was a scare that we had from a party of Cheyenne Indians just before we reached the Platte River, about two weeks after we set out. One of our men, who chanced to be out hunting, some distance from the company and behind us, suddenly appeared without mule, gun or pistol, and lacking most of his clothes, and in great excitement reported that he had been surrounded by thousands of Indians. The company, too, became excited, and Captain Fitzpatrick tried, but with little effect, to control and pacify them. Every man started his team into a run, till the oxen, like the mules and horses, were in a full gallop. Captain Fitzpatrick went ahead and directed them to follow, and as fast as they came to the bank of the river he put the wagons in the form of a hollow square, and had all the animals securely picketed within. After a while the Indians came in sight. There were only forty of them, but they were well mounted on horses, and were evidently a war party, for they had no women except one, a medicine woman.

Frederic Remington sketched an illustration (linked below) of those Cheyennes for The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Volume 41
November 1890 to April 1891
books.google.com/books?id=BH4gAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA116

Very interesting story! But the further course of the story is just as interesting:

Source: The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Vol. 41 (Century Company, 1891), p. 115, 116

Obviously a Cheyenne war party?
I have some doubts.

[jones]

I too doubt it was a “war party”.
My initial reason for researching this particular caravan was to determine where the Cheyennes were encountered.
Bidwell, Father De Smet and Rev. Joseph Williams all mentioned the incident.
Bidwell’s and De Smet’s accounts were reminiscences, whereas Williams appears to have written his journal as events happened. He was still trying to catch up with the caravan, so he wasn’t an eye witness, and he wrote only what he had been told by others.
De Smet said there were 80 Cheyennes, and Joseph Williams was told there were 200. He was also told there were four victims to the raid (rather than one).
At any rate, Joseph Williams indicated the Cheyenne encounter happed 5 or 6 days before the caravan reached the Platte River, which places them quite a ways east of their normal stomping grounds (along the Blue River), in what was within the Kaw and Pawnee territories.
Nonetheless, Bidwell’s mention of the medicine woman made me curious if it was standard practice for a medicine woman to accompany a Cheyenne raiding party (or hunting party).

Narrative of a Tour from the State of Indiana to the Oregon Territory in the years 1841-42
by Rev. Joseph Williams

books.google.com/books?id=9M-WGXzJG70C&pg=PA32
I saw the company about four miles ahead, but soon lost sight of them again; and coming to the place where the company had stopped to eat dinner, I alighted, and let my horse feed awhile. At this place, as the company afterwards told me, about two hundred Indians had been seen only an hour before. They had sometimes hung on the rear of the company, and had made some show of attacking those who lingered behind the main body. Awhile before, they had robbed four men of all they had, stripped them naked, and left them in the open prairies to perish before they could get to the white settlements. The company said it was ninetynine chances to one that I escaped the hands of the Indians, for they had been seen all along where I had come.The