Paper short abstract:

The paper is a policy review and ethnohistorical account of Cheyenne Indian—United States land relations in the North American Central High Plains, 1812-2012.

Paper long abstract:

The paper is a policy review and ethnohistorical account of Cheyenne Indian—United States land relations in the North American Central High Plains, 1812-2012. Animal husbandry and horticultural practices of the Cheyenne are examined with the Euro-American settlement patterns of coerced assimilation, resource extraction, and extermination policies. There has been a predominance of land tenure usurpation, seed patenting, and transgenic disruption of life sustaining practices of ethnic and global populations proportions. Corporate interests predominant in U.S. policy-making hold short-term monetary profits as the U.S. allows patents on life itself. This is an unsustainable onslaught on genetic diversity, human fertility, and indigenous knowledge. The Cheyenne Indians, an indigenous, non-industrial society, has survived threats of extinction through unique decisions in traditional ways and ceremonies of using indigenous knowledge and effective technologies that are friendly to Nature and that guarantee viable human life-support activities for generations to come.