The Arapaho Indians are a Plains tribe of the Algonquin family. They were once farmers in Minnesota but moved to modern-day Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska. They were nomadic, living in teepees and wearing traditional clothing. They traded with neighboring tribes and Europeans, and were known for their arrow shooting skills. There is a division among the Arapaho due to geographical separation, creating Northern and Southern Arapaho.
The Arapaho Indians are a Plains tribe of the Algonquin family of Native Americans in the United States. The origin of the word Arapaho is not known, but they are called Iñunaina, which loosely translates as “our people”. Once a stationary tribe of farmers living in Minnesota’s Red River Valley, at an unknown time, the Arapaho Indians moved across the Missouri River and rested in what is modern-day Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska.
Modern Arapaho Indians live in Wyoming or Oklahoma. There is a division among the Arapaho Indians due to this geographical separation. After the 1867 Lodge Treatise on Medicine, a group of Arapaho Indians were assigned to a reservation in Oklahoma and the rest of the group were assigned to the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. This division created what is now known as Northern Arapaho and Southern Arapaho.
Like many Native American groups of the Great Plains, the Arapaho were nomadic people who followed herds of big game to survive. The Arapaho Indians cooked bison, elk and deer in pits and dried the meat in jerky. Additionally, they harvested food such as fruits, root vegetables, and cherries.
The Arapaho lived in teepees built with a wooden frame with animal skins. Their nomadic lifestyle forced them to build and tear down their villages in record time so they could move fast. The women owned the houses and were responsible for carrying the large wooden frames during a move and rebuilding them.
Arapaho Indians wore a variety of traditional Native American clothing, such as skirts, buckskin dresses, and loincloths. Shirts weren’t necessary in Arapaho culture, but women wore furs during battles or on special occasions. Both men and women wore moccasins and warming clothes made of buffalo leather. Both men and women styled their hair in two long braids on each side of the head with the occasional addition of feathers. After the Arapaho traded with neighboring Sioux Indians, some men chose to wear traditional feather headdresses.
In addition to trading with the Sioux, the Arapaho Indians traded with Europeans and many other tribes. Most of their trading activity was selling animal furs, when they weren’t fighting with enemy tribes. The Arapaho are revered for their ability to shoot arrows. Arapaho warriors used spears and protected themselves with shields made from animal skins.
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