INDIAN TRIBES OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY. 321 
ARAPOHO GROUP, B. 
@ EVAR hy Ry SE exe 
IV. ARAPOHOS. 
ETHNOGRAPHICAL HISTORY AND REMARKS ON THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF THEIR LANGUAGE. 
Tue past history of the Arapohos is as little known as that of their relatives, the At- 
sinas. The former regard themselves as constituting the parent stock, and believe that 
the latter separated from them. We will now attempt to trace their previous history, as 
far as it is contained in any of our written records. 
I have searched all the works within my reach, and I cannot ascertain with certainty 
their track of migration. Gallatin speaks of them as a detached tribe from the Rapid 
Indians, which has wandered as far south as the Platte and the Arkansas, and formed a 
temporary union with the Kaskaias and some other erratic tribes. At the present time 
the Arapohos are divided into two portions or bands. The first portion call themselves 
na-ka-si’-nin, “ People of the Sage,” and number one hundred and eighty lodges. They 
wander about the sources of the South Platte and the region of Pike’s Peak, also north- 
ward to the Red Buttes on the North Platte. Sometimes they extend their journeyings 
in search of buffalo along the foot of the Big-horn Mountains in the Crow country. They 
spent a large portion of the winter of 1859 and ’60 on the branches of Powder River, near 
the base of the Big-horn Mountains. ‘The second band call themselves na-wuth’-i-ni-han, 
the meaning of which is obscure. It implies a mixture of different kinds of people of 
different bands. They number two hundred lodges, and range along the Arkansas River 
and its tributaries. 
From the fact that Pike in his journals speaks of the Atsinas as the “ Minnetarees of the 
Yellowstone,” and does not allude to the Arapohos, we may infer that they did not occupy 
their present district at the time of his explorations in the Arkansas country. There may 
be, therefore, some ground for the belief that the Arapohos and Atsinas were at one time 
all united, and resided together in the region of the Saskatchewan. This point requires 
still farther investigation. It would seem from “ Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Moun- 
tains,” that the Arapohos occupied nearly their present district in 1819 and 720. 
Rey. Dr. Morse thus speaks of these Indians in 1820: “Their number is estimated at 
10,000. Their country extends from the headwaters of the Kansas, south to the Rio del 
Norte. They are a warlike people, and often making predatory and murderous excursions 
on their eastern and northern neighbors.” Since that time very little notice seems to have 
been taken of them. 
