Utente:Furì/Sandbox/Dog Soldiers
La Dog Soldiers (Soldati Cane) o Dog Men (Uomini Cane), in lingua cheyenne Hotamétaneo'o, è stata una delle sei società guerriere formatesi tra gli indiani Cheyenne. A partire dalla fine degli anni 30 dell'800, questa società si è evoluta in una banda militare separata, svolgendo un ruolo dominante nella resistenza Cheyenne all'espansione americana in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado e Wyoming, dove la nazione Cheyenne si era stabilita nel 19° secolo.
Dopo la morte di quasi la metà degli Cheyenne del Sud durante l'epidemia di colera del 1849, molti delle restanti bande Masikota si unirono ai Dog Soldiers. Diventò effettivamente un gruppo separato, occupando il territorio tra il nord e il sud Cheyenne. I suoi membri spesso si trovarono su posizioni politiche opposte ai capi firmatari di trattati di pace, come Black Kettle. Nel 1869, la maggior parte dei membri furono uccisi dell'esercito degli Stati Uniti nella battaglia di Summit Springs.
Nel 21° secolo, ci sono segnalazioni di rinascita della società dei Dog Soldiers in aree come la riserva degli Cheyenne del Nord in Montana e tra le tribù Cheyenne e Arapaho in Oklahoma.
Il governo tribale Cheyenne[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
Le due istituzioni centrali di governo tradizionale Cheyenne erano il Consiglio dei Quarantaquattro[1] e le società guerriere, inclusi i Dog Soldiers. Il Consiglio dei Quarantaquattro era il consiglio dei capi, composto da quattro capi di ciascuna delle dieci bande Cheyenne, più quattro "capi anziani",[2] distintisi in precedenza nel servizio del consiglio.[1] Mentre i capi erano responsabili per la governance complessiva dei singoli gruppi e della tribù nel suo complesso, i capi delle società guerriere mantenevano la disciplina all'interno della tribù, supervisionando caccia e cerimonie, e assicurando la leadership militare.[1]
Dog Soldiers[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
Dog Soldiers erano noti come guerrieri molto aggressivi ed efficaci combattenti. Secondo una tradizione, facevano parte del loro equipaggiamento un piolo ed un guinzaglio. In battaglia potevano venire utilizzati piantando il piolo nel terreno e legandocisi col guinzaglio, a testimoniare la volontà del guerriero di difendere quel lembo di terra fino alla vittoria o alla morte.[3]
Il passaggio a gruppo indipendente[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
Porcupine Bear[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
Prima del Consiglio per la pace tenutosi aForte Bent nel 1840, i Cheyenne del Sud di lingua algonchina e gli Arapaho erano alleati contro i loro avversari storici, Comanche, Kiowa ed Apache, appartenenti a diverse famiglie e culture linguistiche. In 1837, while raiding the Kiowa horse herds along the North Fork of the Red River, a party of 48 Cheyenne Bowstring Men were discovered and killed by Kiowa and Comanche warriors.[4] Porcupine Bear, chief of the Dog Soldiers, took up the war pipe of the Cheyenne. He carried it to the various Cheyenne and Arapaho camps to drum up support for revenge against the Kiowa. He reached a Northern Cheyenne camp along the South Platte River just after it had traded for liquor from American Fur Company men at Fort Laramie.
Porcupine Bear joined in the drinking. He sat and sang Dog Soldier war songs. Two of his cousins, Little Creek and Around, became caught up in a drunken fight. Little Creek got on top of Around and held up a knife, ready to stab Around; at that point, Porcupine Bear, aroused by Around's calls for help, tore the knife away from Little Creek, and stabbed him with it several times. He forced Around to finish off Little Creek.[5][6]
By the rules governing military societies, a man who murdered or accidentally killed another tribe member was prohibited from joining a society. A society member who committed such a crime was expelled and outlawed.[7] Porcupine Bear was expelled from the Dog Soldiers, and he and his relatives had to camp apart from the rest of the Cheyenne.[7][8] The Dog Soldiers were disgraced by Porcupine Bear's act. The other chiefs forbade them from leading war against the Kiowa.
Wolf reformed the Bowstring Society, which had been nearly annihilated in the fight with the Kiowa. it took over leading warfare against the Kiowa.[8][9] Though outlawed by the main body of the Cheyenne, Porcupine Bear led the Dog Soldiers into battle against the Kiowa and Comanche at Wolf Creek. He and his warriors were reportedly the first to strike the enemy, considered an honor[8][10] but, due to their outlaw status, however, their feat was not celebrated.[8]
La banda dei Dog Soldier[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
The outlawing of Porcupine Bear, his relatives, and his followers led to the transformation of the Dog Soldiers from a warrior society into a separate division of the tribe.[8][11] In the wake of the colera epidemic in 1849, which greatly reduced the Masikota band of Cheyenne,[12] the remaining Masikota joined the Dog Soldiers.[11]
When the Cheyenne bands camped together, the Dog Soldier band took the position in the camp circle formerly occupied by the Masikota.[13] Prominent or ambitious warriors from other bands also gradually joined the Dog Soldier band. Over time the Dog Soldiers took a prominent leadership role in the wars against the whites. The rest of the tribe began to regard them with respect and no longer as outlaws.[11]
The Dog Soldiers contributed to the breakdown of the traditional matrilineal clan system of the Cheyennes. Customarily when a man married, he moved to the camp of his wife's band. Maintaining their separation, the Dog Soldiers brought all wives to their own camp.[11] Other elements contributing to the breakdown of the clan system were the high rate of deaths from the 1849 colera epidemic, which killed perhaps half the Southern Cheyenne population,[14] particularly devastating the Masikota band and nearly wiping out the Oktoguna.[12] Losses in the massacro di Sand Creek of 1864 further disrupted the traditional Cheyenne kinship system. The Third Colorado Cavalry caused heavy casualties among the Wutapai (Black Kettle's band); and killed perhaps half of the Hevhaitaniu under Yellow Wolf and Big Man, and half the Oivimana under War Bonnet. They also killed many among the Hisiometanio (Ridge Men) under White Antelope. The Dog Soldiers and the Masikota, who by that time operated as a band, were not at Sand Creek during the massacre.[15]
The Dog Soldiers band took as its territory the headwaters country of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers in southern Nebraska, northern Kansas, and the northeast of Colorado Territory.[13][16][17] They were allies of the Sioux-speaking Lakota and Brulé Lakota, who also frequented that area. The Cheyenne began to intermarry with the Lakota in that territory. Many Dog Soldiers were half-Lakota, including their chief Tall Bull.[13] During the mid-1860s, Dog Soldier leaders, including Tall Bull and White Horse, frequently called on the great warrior Roman Nose, a Crooked Lance society member, to lead Dog Soldier strikes against white civilian and military assets. He led an attack on Fort Wallace in June 1867.
Due to an increasing division between the Dog Soldiers and the council chiefs with respect to policy towards the whites, the Dog Soldiers became separated from the other Southern Cheyenne bands.[17][18] They effectively became a third division of the Cheyenne people, between the Northern Cheyenne, who ranged north of the Platte River, and the Southern Cheyenne, who occupied the area north of the Arkansas River.[1][17]
A strong band numbering perhaps 100 lodges, the Dog Soldiers were hostile to the encroaching whites.[17] By the 1860s, as conflict between Indians and whites intensified, the militaristic Dog Soldiers increased their influence, together with that of the warrior societies of other Cheyenne bands. The warriors became a significant counter influence to the leadership of the traditional Council of Forty-Four chiefs, who as generally more mature men, were likely to favor working for peace with the whites.[16]
Le guerre indiane[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
In the late 1860s, the Dog Soldiers were crucial in Cheyenne resistance to American expansion. Dog Soldiers refused to sign treaties that limited their hunting grounds and restricted them to a reservation south of the Arkansas River. They attempted to hold their traditional lands at Smoky Hill, but the campaigns of General Philip Sheridan foiled these efforts. After the Battle of Beecher's Island, many Dog Soldiers were forced to retreat south of the Arkansas River.
In the spring of 1867 they returned north with the intention of joining Red Cloud and his Oglala band in Powder River. Attacked by General Eugene Carr, the Dog Soldiers began raiding settlements on Smoky Hill River in revenge. Eventually, Chief Tall Bull led them west into Colorado. After raiding sites in Kansas, they were attacked by a force composed of Pawnee Scouts led by Major Frank North, and United States cavalry, who killed nearly all the band, including Tall Bull, in the Battle of Summit Springs in June 1869.
i Dog Soldiers nella cinematografia[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
L'ultimo cacciatore is a fictional 1995 film about the search for and discovery of an unknown band of Dog Soldiers from a tribe of Cheyenne Indians who escaped the 1864 Sand Creek massacre and survived for more than a hundred years secluded in the Montana wilderness.
Dog Soldiers were depicted in an episode of Longmire in July of 2012, an episode which was said to be based on actual events.
A renegade band of Dog Soldiers are featured antagonists in the first season of the AMC series Hell on Wheels concerning the building of the first segment of the Union Pacific Railroad.
They were also depicted in several episodes of La signora del West.
Note[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
- ^ a b c d Greene, p. 9
- ^ Hoig, p. 11
- ^ Della Pepa
- ^ Hoig, p. 30
- ^ Hyde, p. 74
- ^ Hoig, pp. 48-49
- ^ a b Hyde, p. 335
- ^ a b c d e Hoig, p. 49
- ^ Hyde, p. 75
- ^ Hyde, p. 79
- ^ a b c d Hyde, p. 338
- ^ a b Hyde, p. 97
- ^ a b c Hyde, p. 339
- ^ Hyde, p. 96
- ^ Hyde, p. 159
- ^ a b Greene, p. 26 Errore nelle note: Tag
<ref>non valido; il nome "greene-26" è stato definito più volte con contenuti diversi - ^ a b c d Hoig, p. 85
- ^ Greene, p. 27
Bibliografia[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
- Jeff Broome, Dog Soldier Justice: The Ordeal of Susanna Alderdice in the Kansas Indian War, Lincoln, Kansas, Lincoln County Historical Society, 2003, ISBN 0-9742546-1-4.
- Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Owl Books, 1970, ISBN 0-8050-6669-1.
- Jerome A. Greene, Washita, The Southern Cheyenne and the U.S. Army, in Campaigns and Commanders Series, vol. 3, Norman (Oklahoma), University of Oklahoma Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8061-3551-4.
- Stan Hoig, The Peace Chiefs of the Cheyennes, Norman (Oklahoma), University of Oklahoma Press, 1980, ISBN 0-8061-1573-4.
- George E Hyde, Life of George Bent Written from His Letters, a cura di Savoie Lottinville, Norman (Oklahoma), University of Oklahoma Press, 1968, ISBN 0-8061-1577-7.
- Peter Cozzens, Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865-1890: Conquering the Southern Plains, Stackpole Books, 2003, ISBN 0-8117-0019-4.
web[modifica | modifica wikitesto]
- Gaetano Della Pepa, I Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, in Le 500 nazioni, FarWest.it, 10 aprile 2012.
[[Categoria:Cheyenne]]