The Cheyenne originally lived in the Great Lakes–upper Mississippi region (around present-day Minnesota), then later lived as Plains people in a large territory stretching from the Platte and Arkansas rivers across parts of today’s Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Early homelands

  • Before 1700, the Cheyenne lived in what is now central Minnesota, farming, hunting, gathering wild rice, and making pottery.
  • They later moved west toward the Missouri and Black Hills region, gradually shifting from settled agriculture to a nomadic Plains lifestyle.

Life on the Great Plains

  • By the 1800s, Cheyenne lands on the Plains stretched from southern Montana through Wyoming and Colorado and into western Nebraska and Kansas.
  • They established a major hunting territory between the forks of the Platte River in what are now Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado, focusing on buffalo hunting and tipi life.

Northern and Southern Cheyenne

  • Over time, the people divided into Northern and Southern Cheyenne: the northern groups staying closer to Montana, Wyoming, and the Black Hills, and the southern groups moving toward Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
  • This north–south split was linked to pressure from other tribes, U.S. expansion, and treaties that confined them to smaller areas.

Where Cheyenne people live today

  • Today, the Northern Cheyenne primarily live on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana, centered around Lame Deer.
  • Southern Cheyenne communities are based mainly in Oklahoma, especially within the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.

Simple summary

  • Original homeland: central Minnesota / upper Mississippi region.
  • Classic Plains homeland: from the Platte to the Arkansas rivers and across parts of MT, WY, CO, SD, NE, KS, OK, and TX.
  • Today: Northern Cheyenne in Montana; Southern Cheyenne mainly in Oklahoma.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.