The Arapaho

According to Arapaho legend, the earth was created by the

First Pipe Keeper, who was inspired by the Creator. He also

created the sun, the moon, man, woman, vegetable and animal life,

day and night, and the four seasons. He then taught the first

people the religious rites they would need. Because the duck and

the turtle played a part in the creation, the were placed in a

bundle with the Flat Pipe. Since then, the Arapaho have been

responsible for the bundle.

James Mooney, an ethnologist with the Smithsonian

Institution, in Washington, D.C., wrote in 1890 that the Arapaho

were an intensely religious people, "devotees and prophets,

continuously seeing signs and wonders." They believed that

religious devotion with be rewarded with help from the Creator in

achieving health, happiness, and success.

All Arapaho traveled through four stages, or "hills of

life"--childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age. The duties,

responsibilities, and privileges of males and females changed at

each stage. They symbolically equated the life cycle with the

movement of the sun, the four cardinal directions, and the

progress of the seasons.

In the 1840s, the Arapahos occupied the Great Plains, but it

is not known where they lived before that. Their oral traditions

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indicate that they once hunted buffalo on foot. Until about 1730,

they probably used dogs to transport their belongings as they

followed the buffalo herds. After that, they seem to have

acquired horses by trading with, or raiding, tribes to the south.

Before 1841, the Arapaho subsisted on buffalo, small game and

edible plants. They made almost everything else they had,

including pottery and clothing. Then they began to trade buffalo

robes for manufactured goods, which were luxuries for them.

Arapaho women prized red, white, and blue glass beads, woolen

cloth, metal cooking pots, brass wire for bracelets, and Navaho

blankets.

After the American war against Mexico, the westward began.

People streamed across the Arapaho land and, after the discovery

of gold in California, the traffic increased. This disrupted the

migratory patterns of the buffalo. By the end of the nineteenth

century, the Arapaho's very survival was threatened. Again, they

turned to a type of trade to survive, exacting a price to cross

their land unmolested--arms, ammunition, and luxuries such as

tobacco, sugar, bread, and coffee.

Today, the Arapaho have benefited from a number of civil

rights programs. In 1965, the Department of Housing and Urban

Development began an extensive program of building homes in Indian

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communities, and the Indian Health Service supported improvements

in water supply and sanitation. But at least half of the Arapahos

live outside the areas originally allotted to them. Young

Arapahos have a great deal of freedom these days and many earn

college degrees. The Arapahos are gaining increased political

representation and can also be candidates for office.