Native to Colorado, and Wyoming, the 10,000-strong Native American tribe of Arapaho ranks among the most prominent American Indian tribes in the United States.
The tribe, whose history dates back to the 19th century, boasts of a rich ancestry and culture that traces down to this day.
We review the historical development, culture, and facts about the Arapaho Tribe.
Arapaho Tribe History
As far back as three millenniums ago, the Arapaho people who spoke the Algonquian language resided along the Arkansas river, Platte River, and Red River valley of the current US states of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Minnesota.
They embraced an agricultural lifestyle but soon abandoned their permanent residence and agriculture lifestyle following the incursion of the Europeans in Northern America.
Armed with guns offered to them by the French during trading, the Arapaho people migrated westward to the Ojibwe eastern Great Plains.
It is believed that the Arapaho tribe arrived in the Great Plains In 1700.
They resided in the northern plains, extending from the South Saskatchewan River in Southern Canada to Montana, the western part of South Dakota, and Wyoming.
During this period, the Arapaho people advanced from using pack animals for travois-pulling to utilizing horses.
This thus made hunting trips easier for the tribe, and as such, hunting became the new preoccupation of the tribe.
With the adoption of horses, the Native American tribe became a nomadic equestrian tribe and embraced a lifestyle centered around subsistence Buffalo hunting and living in teepees.
The tribe was also heavily involved in trading, high feature Buffalo meat exchange for plant foods such as maize, squash, beans, and goods produced in Europe.
While they traded with Europeans, the Arapaho trade mainly traded with other tribes, mainly the Arikara and Mandan, who occupied current-day North and South Dakota.
In 1830, the tribe split into two groups, the Northern and Southern Arapaho tribe.
The divergence of the group saw the tribe jointly occupy vast lands which covered western Kansas, Oklahoma, Southern Montana, eastern and central parts of Colorado, the Nebraska Panhandle, and almost all of Wyoming.
Despite splitting into two groups, the tribe was still large enough to withstand another split, who came to be known as Atsina or the Gros Ventre.
There existed a varying degree of social classism between the Arapaho and the Gros Ventre, who spoke an Algonquian language closely related by dissimilar to the Arapaho language.
The Arapaho viewed their tribe as superior to the Gros Ventre.
The culture of tribal rivalry was a common reality among the Arapaho, who groomed their men to be warriors and were involved in wars with rival tribes.
These wars led the various Apaho factional tribes to make allies with other tribes, such as the Southern Arapaho alliance with the Southern Cheyenne.
With the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty with the US Government, the Southern Arapaho tribe began a settled life.
They were allotted a reservation alongside the Southern Cheyenne in the Arkansas and Cimarron river in present-day Oklahoma.
The northern Arapaho, who allied themselves with the Lakota, and Cheyenne, revolted against the US government, culminating in the Red Cloud War.
The Native American tribe alliance neared fruit as they defeated the US government, and through the Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Powder River Country territory was relinquished to them.
These territories remain the stronghold of the Arapaho down to this day.
Arapaho Culture
The heritage of the Arapaho people followed some deeply rooted beliefs and cultures which trace back to their Algonquian roots.
Considered below are done if the cultures embraced by the Indigenous peoples’ tribes.
Creation Myth Belief
Similarly to the Algonquian people, the Arapaho culture believed in creation myths.
The myth centered around a being called the Flat Pipe who resides alone on the water.
The Great Spirit inspired the Flat Pipe to build creatures who would build a world.
He begins this task by creating ducks, and other marine birds, who we’re still looking for land.
With assistance from the Great Spirit, the Flat Pipe was able to create a turtle that could thrive on land and water.
The Turtles dives into the ocean depth, returning with a piece of land that spits out of its mouth.
That land eventually grows to become the earth. Flat Pipe continues his task by creating humans, and animals, who populate the earth.
The inclusion of a turtle in the tribe’s creation-myth theory is unsurprising, as the turtle’s inclusion in creation-myth theories is a common occurrence.
The tribe believes Flat Pipes create these creations by thinking of them.
Division of Labour
The Arapaho society featured a division of labor working system that cut across genders.
Men were primarily responsible for hunting, and with the introduction of horses, Buffalo hunting became a major part of Arapaho society.
Buffalo proved to be the animal that provided the sustainability of the Indigenous peoples’ tribe.
The tribe consumed the blood, organs, and meat of the animal. Women were responsible for preparing food and preparing hide for making saddles, bedding, clothing, and housing material.
Their belief in gender was also fluid. The tribe believed gender was a supernatural gift from other animals or birds and possessed miraculous powers.
Anthropologist Alfred Kroeber expressed a view revealing that the haxu’xan, a male member of the tribe, believed that they were women.
As they advanced in age, they took female identities and could marry men.
Clothing
Women, as well as haxu’xan members of the tribe, wore articles of clothing such as leggings, buckskin-fringed dresses of ankle length, moccasins, and adorned themselves with beads, porcupine quills, elk teeth, and paint.
Men also wore leggings and moccasins, shirts, and buckskin breechcloths, tied around the waist and drawn between the legs. Warriors were identified using their necklaces.
Family
The Arapaho family structure was polygynous and patriarchial. The family often consists of the man and his wives, children, and often the man’s younger brother or a widowed parent of one spouse.
The family lives in a tipi, which was decorated to suit the social standing of the family head.
This amount to the number of horses the family head had, which could help move items during relocation.
Marriage in the Arapaho society was arranged by the male relatives of a female, who sought to choose the male who could provide for and protect the woman the most.
Men embraced marriage only after proving they could cater to a family, and often this was around the age of 30.
The society in the Native American tribe recognized four hills of life: infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and old age.
Children born with scars were believed to have been reincarnated.
Their belief in thoughts and spoken words manifesting, in reality, made speaking about illness and pregnancy a taboo.
Arapaho Tribe Fact
1. There are two Arapaho Tribes in existence today.
Due to the separation of the Arapaho Tribe as far back as 1830, there exist two Arapaho Tribe today.
The northern Arapaho reside alongside the Shoshone in the reservation granted to them.
The Southern Arapaho thrive alongside the Southern Cheyenne, a longtime ally of the tribe, on trust land.
Though they remain subject to American laws, the Arapaho Tribes have their laws, tribal governments, police, and other services.
Rather than tribal chiefs appointed by a tribal council, the tribes elect a community leader as they reside in settlements alongside other tribes.
2. The Arapaho tribe is pronounced as “uh-RAH-our-hoe”
The true origin of the tribe’s name is not known. Still, it is believed to be a corruption of the Pawnee word for the trader, which meant iriiraraapuhu, or the Crow word for a tattoo, alapúuxaache.
3. The Arapaho Tribe mainly speaks English.
Sadly, the Arapaho language is endangered, as young Native Americans of the tribe’s ancestry do not speak the language but English.
Few elders speak the language, but it is at critical risk of going out of existence.
4. The Arapaho Tribe resided in at least four US States.
When the Arapahos met the US forces, they resided in vast territories extending from the US to Canada.
Their residence in the Great Plains extends to Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Wyoming.
Following the US government relocation of the Southern Arapaho, they settled in Oklahoma, while the Northern Arapaho tribe remained in Wyoming.
Here’s a detailed map containing the movement of the settlements of the Northern and Southern Arapaho people.
Conclusion
The Arapaho tribe is one of the numerous Native American tribes in the US which boasts of rich heritage and ancestry.
Unraveling the history of one of the first settlers of America is a marvel to read.
