. Bulletin. Ethnology. BULL. 30] CHEYENNE 251 The popular name has no connection with the French chien, 'dog,' as has some- times erroneously been supposed. In the sign language they are indicated by a gesture which has often been interpreted to mean 'cut arms' or 'cut fingers'— being made by drawing the right index finger several times rapidly across the left—but which appears really to indi- cate 'striped arrows,' by which name they are known to the Hidatsa, Shoshoni, Comanche, Caddo, and probably other tribes, in allusion to their old-time pref- erence for turkey feathers for winging arrows
. Bulletin. Ethnology. BULL. 30] CHEYENNE 251 The popular name has no connection with the French chien, 'dog,' as has some- times erroneously been supposed. In the sign language they are indicated by a gesture which has often been interpreted to mean 'cut arms' or 'cut fingers'— being made by drawing the right index finger several times rapidly across the left—but which appears really to indi- cate 'striped arrows,' by which name they are known to the Hidatsa, Shoshoni, Comanche, Caddo, and probably other tribes, in allusion to their old-time pref- erence for turkey feathers for winging arrows. The earliest authenticated habitat of the Cheyenne, before the year 1700, seems to have been that part of Minnesota bounded roughly by the JNIississippi, Min- nesota, and upper Red rs. The Sioux, living at that period more immediately on the Mississippi, to the e. and s. e. , came in contact with the French as early as 1667, but theCheyennearefirstmentioned in 1680, under the name of Chaa, when a party of that tribe, described as living on the head of the great river, i. e., the Slis- sissippi, visited La Salle's fort on Illi- nois r. to invite the French to come to their country, which they represented as abounding in beaver and other fur ani- mals. The veteran Sioux missionary, Williamson, says that according to con- current and reliable Sioux tradition the Cheyenne preceded the Sioux in the oc- cupancy of the upper Mississippi region, and were found by them already estal)- lished on the Minnesota. At a later period they moved over to the Cheyenne branch of Red r., N. Dak., which thus acquired its name, being known to the Sioux as "the place where the Cheyenne plant," showing that the latter were still an agricultural people (Williamson). This westward movement was due to pressure from the Sioux, who were them- selves retiring before the Chippewa, then already in possession of guns from the E. Driven out by the Sioux, the Cheyenne moved w. toward Missouri r.,
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