“WE WILL NOT GO THERE TO LIVE. THAT IS NOT A HEALTHFUL COUNTRY, AND IF WE SHOULD STAY THERE, WE WOULD ALL DIE. WE DO NOT WISH TO GO BACK THERE, AND WE WILL NOT GO. I AM HERE ON MY OWN GROUND, AND I WILL NEVER GO BACK. YOU MAY KILL ME HERE, BUT YOU CANNOT MAKE ME GO BACK. YOU CAN STARVE US IF YOU LIKE, BUT YOU CANNOT MAKE US GO SOUTH. WE WILL NOT GO.”

Those words, spoken by Chief Morning Star, also known as Chief Dull Knife, are engraved in an impressive monument to the Cheyenne Outbreak from Fort Robinson in 1879. The monument, located along Highway 20 west of Fort Robinson on land owned by Dull Knife College, was dedicated in 2016, 15 years after construction began. It commemorates members of the Northern Cheyenne who fled imprisonment at the Fort following the government’s efforts to force them to return to Oklahoma by denying them food, water and fuel.

The Northern Cheyenne surrendered at Fort Robinson in 1877 after their village in the Bighorn Mountains was burned and were eventually sent south to present-day Oklahoma. Suffering from disease and poor nutrition, the Cheyenne left Oklahoma without permission to return to their tribal lands in the north in 1878, led by Morning Star (aka Dull Knife) and Little Wolf. The tribe split in to two groups as they crossed Nebraska, with Morning Star planning to join Chief Red Cloud at the Red Cloud Agency. Red Cloud, however, had been relocated to Dakota Territory, and Morning Star surrendered to Fort Robinson in October 1878, seeking permission to either join Red Cloud or return to Montana. His negotiations were unsuccessful, and the government began withholding food, fuel and water to force a return south.

On Jan. 9, 1879, a group of the Northern Cheyenne broke out of the barracks, escaping toward the buttes. A running battle with Fort Robinson’s soldiers took place over the next several days, before the remaining tribe members were recaptured Jan. 22 near Antelope Creek northwest of Fort Robinson. All told, 64 Cheyenne and 11 soldiers were killed during the breakout and the ensuing battle.

Part of the land for the Cheyenne Outbreak monument was donated to Dull Knife College in Montana by T.R. and Kay Hughes, who also made arrangements for the college to purchase the remainder of the land at a reduced price. Though the entrance to the monument is gated, visitors are allowed to pass through the gate to visit the monument. Please remember to close the gate after you’ve passed through both entering and leaving.