18/07/2026
This day marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of our Beloved Mother Florence Bites Whiteman. She was born to Sally Crazymule Bites and James Bites, her father’s parents were Mary and William Bites (Flying), and her mother’s parents were Joe Crazymule and Box Woman Nellie White Antelope. She was born on July 17, 1926 – within less than a month of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, that many of her (great)grandparents and ceremonial people, who raised her, were present at. Her Cheyenne name Appears in the Morning Woman, Meome'ėhne'e, was given to her by one of them, they called Limpy because he was wounded at the Battle, he shared his Cheyenne name with her: Appears in the Morning Man, Meome'ehne, and put on a ceremonial sweat for this when she was less than 3 years old. Her mother, Ameo'e, Milky Way Woman, recounted being concerned because her grandfather was taking the little girl into the sweat and they were fasting, still she did not even cry. She was raised in the language by her parents and (great)grandparents, including Louis Dog and his wife Maude Black Bear, who had lost her voice and used Cheyenne sign language, which Florence learned and later also taught. Her grandfathers had red ceremonial pipes and Louis Dog made her a little black pipe and she would sit and smoke with him. Florence remembered him waking up from nightmares remembering the young US soldiers who rather took their own life than surrender to the Cheyenne people. She was given to her great-grandparents, when she was three and her brother was born, and raised by them until she was about nine, when the truant officer came to force her to go to boarding school. She did not speak English and had to learn fast, because children were punished for speaking Cheyenne. Florence reported others she went to school with not wanting to speak Cheyenne later, while she raised her children in Cheyenne and taught the language for the rest of her life.
At the time they were not allowed to leave the government school, Florence only got permission to leave in 1938 when Louis Dog was passing which he had predicted, so she spent his last days with him and Maude. It was shortly after that when she was 12 that Florence, Meome'ėhne'e, was nominated by one of the chiefs to became inducted into the Elk Scraper Society. They had selected 4 girls one from each of the 4 districts, still she was the only one to complete. The training was rigorous, and involved ceremonies and a lot of rules they had to follow and she caught on really fast and became the last fully initiated Cheyenne warrior woman. She continued to live at the Boarding School at Busby until she was about 15, when her society brothers arranged her first marriage to Joe Waters, who came from a Chief’s family. They had 4 children together: Lorraine Waters, Jolene Waters WalksLast, Joseph James Waters and Charlene Waters Alden. Joe Waters served in the second world war and was sent in with the Army Corps of Engineers to “clean up” after the atomic bomb had been dropped in Hiroshima. He died within a decade of a brain tumor and Florence was left with little children.
She herself had been infected with tuberculosis (TB) and was sent to the Cushman Indian Hospital at Tacoma Washington, where she was subject to medical experiments. They would put heavy bags with sand on her chest and she said that if she had not received such rigorous training as a warrior woman, she would have passed away like so many of the other Indigenous persons there. Her mother who was a devout Mennonite sent her with a copy of the Bible and asked her to work on translating it from English into Cheyenne, they later did some of that work together and the resulting version was much shorter than the English version, because in Cheyenne one word can say many things, whereas in English you need many words to say one thing. The Mennonite church on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation still uses those texts. While she spent years on the West Coast, at Tacoma and developed a love for fish, not a staple food for most of us; she was called back in 1950 as her beloved father had a stroke and was half paralyzed and she cared for him until he died still young in late 1951. She then also took in her mother who had seizures. She lost her father and husband in close succession and was determined to pick her next husband herself: Phillip Whiteman Sr. who was kind hearted and also came from Chiefs’ lines. Together they had 4 children: Phillip Jr., Florene, Philomena and Philene, that they raised in the language and on the land from their father’s side.
Florence Bites Whiteman always maintained her ceremonial obligations and her role as a Cheyenne Warrior Woman making her the only woman who could sit with the Society men and chiefs. She was a very traditional woman who devoted her life to sharing her vast knowledge of Cheyenne history. She was featured in the book "Battle of the Little Big Horn, Untold Story," often spoke at the Smithsonian Institution and appeared on ABC and the History Channel. She was also a Sun Dance priestess and member of the Native American Church. People would come to seek her counsel and prayer, since she had a very strong spiritual connection which allowed her to see things. She played a pivotal role in the return of the sacred hat, a coveted gift and covenant of the Northern Cheyenne, that had been kidnapped by an armed group in late 1994, resulting in a lot of deaths and hardships for the Cheyenne people. Until they had a Chiefs’ meeting on our parents’ land, it was really the last big Chief’s meeting that was convened and everybody recognized that this was a matter of Cheyenne law and the Chiefs are the keepers of this sacred law and the societies enforce it. The Chiefs passed a resolution for the return of the sacred hat and the elected tribal leaders and the BIA police all supported it and the enforcement by the societies. In the end it was our mother who went out unarmed with society leaders, and while the other group was armed, secured the peaceful return of the sacred hat, our grandmother. Our parents kept detailed records and passed on our sacred Cheyenne knowledge and language, not just to us as their children, also our people more generally. Our mother earned her teacher’s certificate in the school district and also taught our Cheyenne language at Chief Dullknife College. They named a room at the Lame Deer School and the Cultural Center at Chief Dullknife College after her. Although she had been fighting three rounds of cancer and been given very little time to live, she told us, her children who all sacrificed for her, that she had too much work to do, she could not just die. A decade later, in April 2001 she graduated her last class at Chief Dullknife College and made her journey on April 22, the day that is internationally commemorated as Earth Day. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth and in recognition of all the great contributions she made, we ask that Chief Dullknife College put up a proper sign for the Florence Bites Whiteman Cultural Center – if necessary we are ready to help with fundraising. The impact our mother had on so many lives and the her role preserving our Cheyenne language and knowledge have to be properly recognized. It is hard to put in words all the hardships that she had to face throughout her life and how she navigated them with grace and strength. Most importantly she deeply loved her people, her family, children and (great)grandchildren. We always feel her powerful spirit close. We love you Mom and you will serve as an inspiration forever!
