322 ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
During the winter of 1859 and ’60, the author, attached to the United States Exploring 
Expedition, under the command of Capt. William F. Raynolds, T. E., remained several 
months at the Indian Agency in the valley of Deer Creek, about one hundred miles north- 
west of Fort Laramie. The Arapohos visited the Agency on their return from the Crow 
country, for the purpose of receiving a portion of their annuities still due them, and spent 
some days in that vicinity. Among them was an intelligent Indian, called by the white 
traders Friday, who had been taken from his people when a small boy, and brought up at 
one of the trading-posts, where he learned to speak the English language with fluency. 
When he became a man he returned to his tribe, adopting their habits and costume, and 
is now the most influential personage among them, acting as a medium between the 
Arapohos and the whites. From him I obtained the vocabulary given in this work, and 
all the information I possess of their present condition. A brief account of the early his- 
tory of this man, as given by himself, cannot be devoid of interest or out of place. He 
says, that at the time of the separation of the Atsinas from the Arapohos, they were all 
encamped together on the Cimarron. The Mexicans usually came up from the south to 
trade with them. At this time thirty of the Mexicans came, and the chief of the Atsina 
band wished them all to remain at his camp. ‘The chief of the Arapoho band said, “ Let 
half of the traders go to one camp and half to the other.” A contest of words grew out 
of this, and finally the Atsina chief stabbed the Arapoho chief, and killed him, ‘The 
brothers and sons of the murdered man immediately killed the first chief, and a battle 
commenced, but the difficulty was settled before a great number were slain. The two 
bands then agreed to separate, one portion ranging along the South Platte and Arkansas 
Rivers, the other passed through the North Park to Bridger’s Pass, thence along the 
mountains to the Three Tetons. There they fell in with the mountain trappers, with 
whom they had a contest, and were driven toward the Yellowstone, where they were again 
attacked by the Crows, a large number killed, and many taken prisoners. The remainder 
escaped to the Blackfeet. It will be seen that the above account harmonizes very nearly 
with that given by the Atsinas. 
It was at the time of the separation of the two tribes or bands, that Friday, with several 
lads, became separated from their people, and lost their way. They had been wandering 
about for three days, when a Mr. Fitzpatrick, an old mountaineer, and for some years a 
United States Agent for the Arapohos, as he was taking a train of wagons across the country 
saw Friday, and thinking him to be an enemy, raised his gun to shoot him. The boy at 
once rose up, and Mr. Fitzpatrick saw that he was but a child, and took him to his own 
house. He gave him the name of Friday because he found him on that day of the week. 
Friday relates a tradition in regard to the origin of the Red races. ‘The Great Spirit 
made the Indians all one nation in the beginning. At first He made a woman, then a 
