INTRODUCTION. xxiii 



At present they number about 2,000. 



The principal chief of this tribe is Ta-ke-ho-rna, or 

 ' Little Eobe.' 



Moke-to-ve-to, or 'Black Kettle/ the head chief, as 

 well as their most distinguished war chief, was killed at 

 the battle of Washita. 



The Arrapahoes. The Arrapahoes, sometimes called 

 ' Dirty-noses/ from their sign, which consists in seizing 

 the nose with the thumb and fore-finger, are described 

 by Burton as follows : 



' The Arrapahoes, generally pronounced Eapahoes 

 (called by their Shoshone neighbours Sharetikeh, or Dog- 

 eaters, and by the French Gros Venires], are a tribe of 

 thieves, living between the south fork of the Platte and the 

 Arkansas Eivers. They are bounded north by the Sioux, 

 and hunt in the same grounds with the Cheyennes. This 

 breed is considered fierce, treacherous, and unfriendly to 

 the whites, who have debauched and diseased them, while 

 the Cheyennes are comparatively chaste and uninfected. 

 The Arrapahoe is distinguished from the Dakotah by the 

 superior gauntness of his person, and the boldness of his 

 look ; there are also minor points of difference in the 

 mocassins, arrow-marks, and weapons.' 



The Eev. Dr. Morse thus speaks of these Indians in 

 1820: 'Their number is estimated at 10,000. Their 

 country extends from the head-waters of the Kansas, 

 south to the Eio del Norte. They are a warlike people, 

 and often make predatory and murderous excursions on 

 their eastern and northern neighbours.' 



The tribe has, since 1820, from wars and that terrible 

 scourge the small-pox, greatly decreased, and is now 

 almost extinct. They now number only 1,500. 



Their head chief is ' Oh-nas-tieJ or ' Little Eaven.' 

 Mr. Eichardson, who was in the habit of seeing him 

 frequently in 1865, describes him as being the nearest 



