Arapaho
Total population
5,000
Regions with significant populations
United States (Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming)
Languages
English, Arapaho
Religion
Christianity, other
Related ethnic groups
Cheyenne and other Algonquian peoples

The Arapaho (in French: Gens de Vache) tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States The Great Plains are the broad expanse of Prairie and Steppe which lie east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. The State of Wyoming ( is a sparsely populated state in the western region of the United States. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Cheyenne are a Native American nation of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taa'e (more commonly Sioux (pronounced SUE are a Native American and First Nations people Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, who are seen as an early offshoot of the Arapaho. The Arapaho language (also Arapahoe is a Plains Algonquian language (an areal rather than genetic grouping spoken almost entirely by elders in Wyoming The Algonquian (also Algonkian, and pronounced both and) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic Blackfoot and Cheyenne are the other Algonquian languages on the Plains, but are quite different from Arapaho. The Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsítapi (meaning "original people" c By the 1850s, Arapaho bands separated into two tribes: the Northern Arapaho and Southern Arapaho. The Northern Arapaho Nation has lived since 1878, with the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation, the seventh largest reservation in the United States. The Shoshone ( or) are a Native American tribe with three large divisions the Northern the Western and the Eastern Wind River Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation shared by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of Native Americans in the The Southern Arapaho Tribe lives with the Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma.

Scabby Bull, Arapaho

There is no direct historical or archaeological evidence to suggest how and when Arapaho bands entered the Plains culture area. The Arapaho Indian tribe most likely lived in Minnesota and North Dakota before entering the Plains. Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers North Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern and Western regions of the United States of America. Before European expansion into the area, the Arapahos were living in South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas. They lived in teepees which the women made from bison hide. The American bison ( Bison bison) is a Bovine Mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. Before they were sent to reservations, they migrated often chasing herds, so they had to design their teepees so that they could be transported easily. A tipi' (also teepee, tepee) is a conical Tent originally made of animal skins or birch bark and popularized by the Native Americans It is said that a whole village could pack up their homes and belongings and be ready to leave in only an hour. In winter the tribe split up into small camps sheltered in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in present-day Colorado. In late spring they moved out onto the Plains into large camps to hunt buffalo gathering for the birthing season. In mid-summer Arapahos traveled into the Parks region of Colorado to hunt mountain herds, returning onto the Plains in late summer to autumn for ceremonies and for collective hunts of herds gathering for the rutting season.

Arapaho camp, 1868

They originally used dogs to pull travois with their belongings on them. Year 1868 ( MDCCCLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap A travois ( Canadian French, from French travail, a frame for restraining horses also obsolete travoy or travoise) is a frame When the Europeans came to North America, the Arapaho saw the Europeans' horses and realized that they could travel quicker and further with horses instead of dogs. They raided other Indian tribes, primarily the Pawnee and Comanche, to get the horses they needed. The Pawnee (also Paneassa, Pari, Pariki) are a Native American tribe that historically lived along the Platte, Loup and The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose range (the Comancheria) consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado

Later on, they became great traders and often sold furs to other tribes and non-Indians. Fur is a body hair of any non-human Mammal, also known as the Pelage. The name 'Arapaho' might have come from the Pawnee word for 'traders. The Pawnee language is a Caddoan language spoken by Pawnee Native Americans located in North central Oklahoma. '

Arapaho camp, ca. 1870

The children often fished and hunted with their fathers for recreation. Year 1870 ( MDCCCLXX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common While they had more chores to do than present-day Arapaho, they still had time to play games. They played many games, including one involving a netted hoop and a pole where they would try to throw their pole through the center of the net. It was much like the game of darts which is enjoyed today. Darts refers to a variety of related games in which darts are thrown at a circular target (dartboard hung on a wall

In July of 2005, Arapahos won a contentious court battle with the State of Wyoming to get into the gaming or casino industry. The 10th Circuit Court ruled that the State of Wyoming was acting in bad faith when it would not negotiate with the Arapahos for gaming. Presently, the Arapaho Tribe owns and operates high-stakes, Class III gaming at the Wind River Casino and Little Wind Casino, a smaller facility. It is regulated by a Gaming Commission composed of three Tribal members. Wind River is the first casino to open in the state of Wyoming.

During November 1864, a small village of Cheyenne and Arapaho became the victims of a controversial attack by the Union Army, led by Colonel John Chivington. This attack is now known as the Sand Creek Massacre. The Sand Creek Massacre (also known as the Chivington massacre or the Battle of Sand Creek or the Massacre of Cheyenne Indians) was an incident in

The late Eugene Ridgely, a Cheyenne-Northern Arapaho artist, is generally credited with bringing to light the fact that Arapahos were involved with the Massacre. His children, Eugene "Snowball" Ridgely, and Gail Ridgely, have been instrumental in designating the massacre site as a National Historic Site.

Literary reference

In Centennial, James A. Michener's epic historical novel about the West from prehistoric to modern times, the fourth chapter is about the Arapahoe peoples and their customs. Centennial was a novel written by American author James Michener and published in 1974 James Albert Michener ( February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American author of more than 40 titles the majority of which An historical novel is a Novel in which the story is set among historical events or more generally in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the Author

See also

• Arapaho language
• Arapahoe County, Colorado
• Arapahoe, Colorado
• Arapahoe, Wyoming
• Wind River Indian Reservation

External links

• http://tlc.wtp.net/arapaho.htm
• http://www.northernarapaho.com/
• Arapaho Language Sample