Itinerary

Day 1 (Thurs Aug 30)
Arrive Billings, Montana (BIL) and shuttle to your hotel for a relaxed evening prior to the commencement of your journey into Cheyenne culture.
Day 2 (Fri Aug 31)
Orienting ourselves in the best-kept secret in the West - the breath-taking natural wonder that is the Bighorn Canyon - we learn that wild mustangs range in the shadow of the Canyon amidst the Pryor Mountains and we go in search of the survivors of the Horse Nations proudest days.   Our evening ascent to the plateau of the Bighorns is rewarded by the same panoramic views the ancient Cheyenne enjoyed and, thanks to zero light pollution we have confirmation that there are 10 times more stars in the night sky than grains of sand in the world's deserts and beaches! We discuss tribal star knowledge and its acceptance and use by NASA.
Stay: Bighorn Mountains
Day 3 (Sat Sept 1)
Experience one of the most sacred sites in the world, the Medicine Wheel atop Medicine Mountain in the Bighorn Mountains. We discuss the Massaum Ceremony, ‘the medicine dance of the ancients’, a beautiful and integral part of the traditional Cheyenne culture in it’s formation in which the wolf and the ‘Wolf’s Lodge’ is essential to creation, to life, and renewal in the spiritual and physical.
While anyone can visit a powwow and enjoy the atmosphere, sounds and sights, we prefer to comprehend the intricacies of what we are seeing, to understand what we are hearing, and to synchronize with local etiquette. Our powwow seminar is the route to that appreciation.
Stay: Sheridan, WY
Day 4 (Sun Sept 2)
At the awe-inspiring Deer Medicine Rocks, where Sitting Bull’s vision of soldiers without ears, falling like grasshoppers upside down into camp can still be seen, we interpret the meaning and significance of great names that were bestowed upon great leaders such as Sitting Bull and Tall Bull and relate those symbols of identification in translation to sacred rock art. We stand before rugged cliff faces and amazing sandstone features to witness visual representations of the sacred where the voices of the Old Ones resonate through the images in stone.   Grand Entry at any powwow is a highlight. Gazing into the arbor, we hear them before we see them; ankle bells jangling, dresses jingling and drums pounding. Honoring modern-day Cheyenne warriors is prioritized as the colors of the veterans are paraded, bringing onlookers to their feet with one accord. Then the arbor begins to fill with feathers, porcupine quills, deer-hair, bells, tassels, bustles, hide, and fur. Mimicking animal movement, males dancers dart, lunge and jerk, their intricate footwork fit to rival any River Dance as they glide and swoop with uncanny grace, while traditional ladies from eight to eighty dip and sway in synchronized perfection with the whooping, mystic drummers and singers.
Stay: Sheridan, WY
Day 5 (Mon Sept 3)
We relive the Rosebud Battle, looking across the vast sweep of the field, viewing the terrain as Crazy horse and Custer saw it that June day just one week before the cataclysmic Battle of the Little Bighorn. The Battle Where The Girl Saved Her Brother went down in Cheyenne history as an event of prodigious bravery, and brought Buffalo Calf Trail Woman to spiritual immortality amongst her people. Amid the US Cavalry however, this battle is not so well remembered. Had the Lakota and Cheyenne not prevailed, would the Little Bighorn ever have happened?
This night we join the excitement at the local Northern Cheyenne powwow. Beneath the moon, the dancers stomp and whirl. As the drumming builds they twist, turn and leap, lighting the arbor with Native pride and the sheer joy of being Cheyenne.
Stay: Billings
Day 6 (Tues Sept 4)Depart from Billings, Montana,

EXTEND YOUR JOURNEY
Day 6 (Tues Sept 4)
Trace the switchbacks along the Beartooth Pass across the most ravishing landscapes Montana and Wyoming have to offer. Leveling onto the plateau then connecting with to the Chief Joseph Byway our destination is the northeast gateway to Yellowstone National Park and America's Serengeti – the Lamar Valley; home to wolves, grizzly bears and elk. Our evening is spent ‘spotting’ for wolves in the Valley.
Stay: Cooke City
Day 7 (Wed Sept 5)
On the trail of the wolf we learn that Yellowstone is Indian Country as we reconnect with Mother Earth in this unfinished land; an earth sculpture in the making! For here in this special land where we will explore the region's Native history and culture, are studded more geysers, fumaroles and mud pots than any other place on the planet. Just as the human beings and the buffalo share an ancient compact, so too do the wolf and the buffalo, and the wolf and the human beings. The wolf taught many to hunt, and would call others to share the bounty, and we learn of that tradition – of the wolf as a teacher, and how the wolf is revered in Cheyenne and other Plains cultures, to the extent that the scouts of the people, those who guide, those who bring warnings and messages, are referred to as “wolves.” At dusk we will seek the twilight hunter and listen for the mysterious music of his song.
Stay: Pahaska
Day 8 (Thurs Sept 6)
Within Cheyenne culture, the Bowstrings Military Society members have an ancient connection to the wolf; learn why the Bowstrings are called "Wolf Soldiers", and the leader of the society, the "Wolf Chief".  We learn the ways of the wolf both spiritually and scientifically.
Stay: Billings
Day 9 (Fri Sept 7)   Depart from Billings, MT

More information from Go Native America:

• Company profile, experience, and history
• View all of their trips