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.
˜Maheo
(also spelled Maheo'o, Maheu, Maiyun, 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, Ve'ho'e, Vihuk,
and several 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 Old Man of the Blackfoot tribe;
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!
Indian nations
Cheyenne Stories:
How The Buffalo Hunt Began: 
