The Northern Cheyenne, upon arrival at the…

The Northern Cheyenne, upon arrival at the reservation in present-day Oklahoma, had encountered inadequate rations, no buffalo left alive near the reservation, and malaria.

A portion of the Northern Cheyenne, led by Little Wolf and Dull Knife, had attempted to return to the north in the fall of 1877 in the Northern Cheyenne Exodus.

Living off the land, sometimes raiding and killing settlers and cattlemen along the way to obtain horses and food, they had succeeded in reaching the north.

After they divided into two bands, the one led by Dull Knife was captured and imprisoned in an unheated barracks at Fort Robinson without food or water.

When the Cheyenne escape on January 9, 1879, many die at US Army hands in the subsequent Fort Robinson massacre.

Eventually the U.S. government grants the Northern Cheyenne a northern reservation, the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in present-day southern Montana.