Cheyenne Frontier Days kicks off on July 17. And the theme, Year of the American Indian, coincides with the nation’s 250th birthday. Renée Middleton is the Executive Director of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Foundation. She said the completion this year of the new Morning Star American Indian Village creates an opportunity to recognize a long partnership between Indigenous people and the event. Wyoming Public Radio’s Kamila Kudelska caught up with Middleton for a preview and a look back.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Kamila Kudelska: There has been an American Indian village at Cheyenne Frontier Days for a pretty long time. What is that relationship, and how did the Morning Star come about?
Renée Middleton: At the very first Cheyenne Frontier Days (CFD) 130 years ago, there were American Indians. Granted, not a whole bunch of them, just three or four of them, but they were participatory in the one day event itself. Ever since then, it's just kind of grown.
This year, given the fact that we had the opportunity to build something phenomenally big, we took the advantage. We went from a third of an acre, which is where it has been the last several years, to now it's almost 3.8 acres.
In the old village of last year and previously, guests could literally jump the buck rail fence and go look into the performers' tipis, which are their private quarters. They come here because they like to bring their families, and they camp in a tipi. We created a space that was much more open and concealed, basically, from the guests' eyes, but also provided a lot more amenities to performers. They now have indoor restrooms, and showers, and storage areas, and a kitchen, and a sitting area where they can watch TV and relax and enjoy air conditioning, instead of being stuck outside in the heat all the time.
KK: How did CFD collaborate with Indigenous people to make the Morning Star happen?
RM: We worked with our group. Sandra Iron Cloud is the person who we contract with to bring the performers and the musicians. So, Sandra Iron Cloud was on our education committee. Ivan Posey, who is an instructor at Central Wyoming Community College, was actually hired to be our cultural consultant.
In fact, a really good story about why you need people like that surrounding you and helping you with every detail: the Cheyenne Frontier Days logo is an arrowhead, and there's a bucking bronco on it. We were going to call this the Arrowhead American Indian Village.
We were getting ready to have the ribbon-cutting for the ground [and] Ivan called me, and he said, "Renée, I know this is late in the game, but I just want you to know something because, the arrowhead…I understand why you're using it. It's your logo for the Cheyenne Frontier Days brand."
He said, "Yes, American Indians used the arrowhead, but they used it only to kill. It was to kill the buffalo to feed their families. It was to kill, invading, other tribes."
So he goes, "It's bad medicine. It's always going to be used to kill." And he said, "I just don't want you to start this beautiful project with bad medicine."
I said, "How about the Morning Star?" and he said, “Morning Star would be perfect.”
Morning Star stands for Venus. Throughout most of the American tribes, and there's over 70 tribes recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, they all set their tipis up for the Morning Star. Because you set your tipi facing east to the Morning Star, because that is a signal of new beginnings. And this Morning Star American Indian Village is a new beginning for the American Indians and Cheyenne Frontier Days partnership.
KK: Can you paint me a picture of what the space looks like?
RM: We have a steel fence that has dots laser cut out of it that replicates iconic Wyoming mountains and sights. Then overset that, and there's some of it's just flat prairies also, we have steel cutouts of American bison, as well as American Indian horses. Because the horse and the bison were huge to the Plains Indians. Those are the tribes that were in this area and were partners with Cheyenne Frontier Days. The Plains Indians were some of the first tribes to utilize the horse and [it] helped them immensely, because they were very nomadic people.
I honestly believe it's going to be a cultural landmark here in Wyoming at the intersection of I-80 and I-25, which, ironically, is also known as the Confluence of the Plains. Because the Indians, both from the south and from the north and from the east and the west, came through this section of Wyoming long before the white people were here and the trains came, so it made sense. And we talk about that also in the village. There's a lot of educational aspects in the village.
This one's really about educating and helping people understand what a phenomenal culture the American Indians, in general, have, as well as the American Indians, Plains Indians, here in this part of the world.
KK: Cheyenne Frontier Days has been running for about 130 years, and like you said, Indigenous people have been part of the event from the beginning. Can you talk a little bit about how that relationship started and how it's grown?
RM: It literally started with another partner, the Union Pacific Railroad. They were the ones that said, "Hey, you need to have a reason for us to stop here." The Union Pacific Railroad deeded these acres that we sit on still today to the city of Cheyenne for a rodeo.
Some of the business people of Cheyenne had friends that were American Indians and said, "Hey, you should come see this. And you guys can show off your culture, and the cowboys will show off their culture." From there, it just started to become a more formalized relationship.
KK: What kind of events will take place at Morning Star this year?
RM: There's still going to be all the same things that we do, the singing, and drum and dancing. But what is new, specifically for Morning Star, is we did an art call, and we have 10 American Indian artists' art on all of the end walls of the vendor buildings.
One of the biggest points of the Morning Star is that everything is based on the sacredness of the circle. The dance arbor is a circle, all of the buildings within the Morning Star Village are arcs of circles, because it's sacred. The new oral history stage is in a circle. From there, then we have a red road going around the outside of the dance arbor. There's signage that talks about the red road, which is a path of enlightenment, how to become a person who lives by integrity. We want our guests to take a walk on the red road and think about how can they can become a better person.
