Cheyenne Visions II -

This is a photograph of a Dog Soldier sash laid on top of a muslin painting that depicts a Cheyenne Dog Soldier wearing such a sash in battle. The Dog Soldiers were the most elite Cheyenne military society. Similar to societies of other tribes, Dog Soldiers swore never to retreat in battle. The long sash served as the society's insignia and pinned the warrior to the earth during battle.

George Bent was a Cheyenne Dog Soldier and the son of William Bent, a white trader, and Owl Woman, a Southern Cheyenne. Born in 1843, Bent was raised in both the Cheyenne and white worlds. He received a white man's education and served in the Confederate Army at the beginning of the Civil War. He returned home to Fort Bent and the Southern Cheyenne village in 1862. Bent was living in Black Kettle's village at Sand Creek when it was attacked on November 29, 1864. Although wounded, Bent made it to a Dog Soldier encampment fifty miles away. From then on, Bent lived with the Cheyenne and rode with the Dog Soldiers on the retaliatory raids on white settlements.

"The Dog Soldiers are a band or society. It was a big society that was always together in a large village. There are Dog Soldiers among the Arapahos and also among Kiowas. Head men of all these tribes wore sashes made of Buffalo skin worked with porcupine quills and bead work. Only head men and brave men could wear this sash."

"It is called a Dog Rope. On end of there is a sharp pin eight inches long. In a fight, these headmen were supposed to stick this pin in the ground and not run off. Anyone could pull this pin out and hand it to the owner. At the same time, the person pulling this pin must hit him with a whip to make him leave."

"Good Bear, who was in Carpenter and Forsyth 's fight, says the Dog Soldiers moved south towards the Smoky River. Bad Heart or Wolf Billy led the first charges, and he was shot in back through the bowels and died the next morning. The Cheyenne had few old Henry Carbines and few Spencer's, but were armed with lances and bows and arrows. All the warriors were dressed according to the band or society they belonged to. Plenty Wolf Hair, a Dog Soldier, pinned himself when General Carr charged into Tall Bull's village on the South Platte. Of course, he was killed."

"Dog rope is used by Mandans, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches. When Mandans and Cheyenne had a fight ninety years ago on the Missouri River, each tribe was in the fight. Cheyenne and Kiowas had a fight seventy years ago down here, and both sides wore Dog Ropes. It must be a very old thing, and it looks strange with these different tribes wearing them without ever meeting one another before."
––George Bent, in letters to George Hyde, 1904
George Bent Collection (MSS54), Colorado Historical Society

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