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Native Languages of the Americas:
Cheyenne Legends and Traditional Stories

This is our collection of links to Cheyenne folktales and traditional stories that can be read online. We have indexed our American Indian legends section by tribe to make them easier to locate; however, variants on the same legend are often told by American Indians from different tribes, especially if those tribes are kinfolk or neighbors to each other. In particular, though these legends come from the Cheyenne tribe, the traditional stories of related tribes like the Arapaho and Gros Ventre are very similar.

Enjoy the stories! If you would like to recommend a Cheyenne legend for this page or think one of the ones on here should be removed, please contact us and let us know.

Important Cheyenne Mythological Figures

Click on each character's name for more detailed information about his or her role in Cheyenne mythology.

Maheo (also spelled Maheo'o and other ways.) This is the Cheyenne name for the Creator (God.) Literally his name means "Great One," and he is often referred to as Great Medicine or the Great Spirit. Maheo is a divine spirit without human form or attributes and is rarely personified in Cheyenne folklore. In some myths, Maheo is referred to as Heammawihio (or Heamaveeho,) which means "Spider Above." This may be an appellation borrowed from their Arapaho kinfolk, who referred to the Creator this way to differentiate him from the earthly Spider figure (see below.) Maheo is by far the more common name. It is pronounced similar to mah-hey-yoh in Cheyenne.

Wihio (also spelled Veeho, Veho, and other ways.) Wihio is the spider trickster of the Cheyenne tribe. His name is pronounced veh-hoh or wih-hoh, depending on dialect. Though he is associated with spiders and his name means "spider," he has the form of a man in every Cheyenne tale we know of. In some stories, Wihio plays the role of the clever and benevolent trickster/transformer hero, similar to Nanabozho of the Anishinabe tribes; but in most stories, he is merely a silly and foolish character who behaves as inappropriately as possible by Cheyenne social standards. In any case, the literal meaning of the character's Cheyenne name is "Spider." It is given as "White-Man" in some older translations, but this is a misleading translation-- the Cheyennes named white people after the trickster character, not vice versa!

Cheyenne Indian Folklore

*Cheyenne Stories:
    A great online collection of traditional Cheyenne stories in Cheyenne and English.
*Great Medicine Makes a Beautiful Country:
    The Cheyenne creation myth.
*Race Among the Animals * How The Buffalo Hunt Began:
    Cheyenne legends about the origins of the buffalo hunt.
*The Life and Death of Sweet Medicine:
    Saga of the Cheyenne hero Sweet Medicine.
*Veeho's Eyeballs * The Eye Juggler:
    Cheyenne legends about Veeho losing his eyeballs.
*Sun Teaches Veeho A Lesson:
    Cheyenne legend about Veeho trying to steal the Sun's pants.
*How Wihio Got Tongue:
    Cheyenne legend about Wihio getting the better of Coyote.
*The Rolling Head * Case of the Severed Head:
    Cheyenne legends about the Rolling Head monster.
*Falling-Star:
    Story of the birth and life of the Cheyenne hero Falling Star.
*Yellowstone Valley and the Great Flood:
    Cheyenne myth about the flooding of the earth.
*The Old Woman of the Spring:
    Legend of a spirit woman who helped the Cheyennes through a famine.
*The Quillwork Girl and her Seven Brothers:
    Cheyenne myth about the origin of the Big Dipper constellation.
*The Girl Who Married A Dog:
    Cheyenne legend about the origin of the Pleiades.
*The Great Medicine Dance:
    Cheyenne tale about the origin of the Sundance.
*Arrow Boy:
    Cheyenne legend about the hero Motzeyouf (Arrow Boy.)
*The Death of Head Chief and Young Mule:
    Cheyenne story about the death of a 19th-century warrior.

Recommended Books on Cheyenne Mythology

Tales of the Cheyennes:
    Collection of Cheyenne legends and folktales.
Algonquian Spirit:
    Excellent anthology of stories, songs, and oral history from the Cheyenne and other Algonquian tribes.
American Indian Trickster Tales:
    Compilation of more than a hundred stories about Veeho and other Native American tricksters.
    (Use discretion sharing these with kids as some of the stories contain adult humor.)

Additional Resources

 The Cheyenne sweat lodge
 Books of Native American legends
 Native American religions
 Cheyenne words
 Oklahoma Indian tribes
 Plains Native Americans
 Algonquian tribes
 Cheyenne culture
 Native American Indian website



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