Cheyenne Character Analysis

Cheyenne is Buddy Lamont’s sister. After Mary gave birth during the Occupation of Wounded Knee, Buddy’s family asked Mary to leave Wounded Knee with them to help with Buddy’s funeral. Government officials had promised not to arrest Mary as she left Wounded Knee, but they arrested her anyway. They separated her baby, Pedro, from her, and said that they’d give Pedro to a foster family because “being poor, unwed, and a no-good rabble-rouser from the Knee made [her] an unfit mother.” None of these things actually preclude Mary from being a good mother, which suggests that they sought to take Pedro away from Mary simply because she was Native American. Mary refused to part with Pedro until Cheyenne offered to watch him while Mary was in jail. The officials relented, and Mary felt more reassured knowing that another Native American woman was watching her child. Cheyenne’s offer is an example of Native American solidarity—she went out of her way to help another Native American woman, instead of letting Mary lose her child.