1978 Shane Pictorial Map of Northern Cheyennes Indian Reservation, Montana

The Northern Cheyenne Exodus.

This is a 1966 Ralph M. Shane pictorial historical map of Montana's Northern Cheyenne Reservation. It traces the struggle to return to and retain a homeland after forced removal to Indian Territory, as well as key events in the longer history of displacement, resistance, family survival, and the establishment of the reservation, including the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, which took place nearby on the adjacent Crow Reservation. Schools, tribal government, and contemporary industry carry the history of the Cheyenne into the 1960s.

A Closer Look

Rendered throughout in blue, the map centers on the country between Rosebud Creek and the Tongue River, identifying the towns of Busby, Lame Deer, Ashland, and Birney. Reservation and county boundaries intersect a township-and-range framework, while roads connect the communities through a closely drawn network of creeks and tributaries. Pictorial ridges distinguish the divides and basins. Battle sites, former settlements, agency headquarters, schools, and the Two Moons Monument occupy the same landscape as illustrations of buffalo hunters, military scouts, families, and mounted warriors.

Numbered sections of text proceed in chronological order around the map, covering from the era before extensive contact with Americans down to the late 19th century. The dramatic fighting scenes are only part of Shane's account. Substantial passages follow Dull Knife, or Morning Star (c. 1810 - 1883), and Little Wolf (c. 1820 - 1904), through removal to Indian Territory and the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878 - 1879. Shane describes the division of their followers, the imprisonment of Dull Knife's group at Fort Robinson, the withholding of food, heat, and water, and the deadly escape into the winter night.

The map is explicit about failures of federal administration. Near the northern boundary, Shane attributes late-19th-century starvation to official mismanagement, introducing his dramatic account of Head Chief and Young Mule, killed in a confrontation with U.S. troops in 1890. Elsewhere, he describes the removal of settlers' claims from reservation land and the eventual extension of the eastern boundary to the Tongue River.

Despite its emphasis on early history, the sheet also records contemporary institutions and events. Text near Ashland describes St. Labre's educational programs and a plastics plant opened beside the school in 1962; a passage along the bottom explains tribal government under the constitution adopted in 1936 and amended in 1960. This attention to employment and education had immediate relevance. In a February 14, 1966, letter reprinted in the Congressional Record, Northern Cheyenne president John Wooden Legs challenged an account portraying the reservation as hopeless, describing new housing, scholarships, and industrial investment.

Publication History

This map was prepared and published by Ralph M. Shane in 1966. There appear to be two printings of this map; the present issue and a printing that appeared with a book titled Brief history of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana, published at the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation Agency Headquarters in Lame Deer in 1966. Some examples of the map appear in black ink rather than blue, and are likely those that were included with the book. Catalog listings do not always clearly provide information that would allow for distinction, but we can confirm that the separately published issue offered here is held by the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, the Montana Historical Society, and the University of California, Berkeley (though their example is noted as a 'photocopy').

Cartographer

Ralph M. Shane (1910 - July 12, 1984) was an artist and U.S. government engineer. Born near Edelstein, Illinois, Shane's parents moved the family to Pipestone, Minnesota, where he attended public school. After high school, Shane attended the University of Colorado before transferring to the South Dakota School of Mines, where he graduated in 1935 with a B.S. in engineering. He found work with the South Dakota State Highway Commission and drafted strip and right-of-way maps. In November 1936, Shane joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an engineering draftsman. He was promoted to junior road engineer the following year. The Bureau transferred him to Sacramento, California, in January 1939 to work as chief of a road survey party. Shane worked as a road engineer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs across the western United States through the 1940s and 1950s, except for a four-month furlough in 1943 when he served as a Navy ensign. He left the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1955 and bought a newspaper in New Town, North Dakota, which he edited for two years before returning to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He retired from the Bureau in 1979. Shane was married twice. First to Jeanette Wildman, whom he married in 1936, then to Carolyn Mae Hodgkinson, whom he married on July 14, 1944. He had four children.   Further Details...

Condition

Fine.

References

Rumsey, 13659.000. OCLC 227493628 et al. Wooden Legs, John, letter to the editor of the Lincoln Star, February 14, 1966, reprinted under 'Progress on Northern Cheyenne Reservation', Congressional Record - Senate, February 21, 1966, pp. 3532 - 3534.