I.— GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



The Arapaho Indians first became known at the beginning 

 of the last century. Since that time they have inhabited the 

 country about the head waters of the Arkansas and the Platte 

 Rivers. This territory, which they held together with the 

 Cheyenne, covers approximately the eastern half of Colorado 

 and the southeastern quarter of Wyoming. The language of 

 the Arapaho, as well as that of the Cheyenne, belongs to the 

 widely spread Algonkin family, of which they form the most 

 southwesterly extension. These two tribes were completely 

 separated from the Blackfoot, Ojibway, and other tribes 

 speaking related languages, by the Dakota and other tribes 

 inhabiting the intervening territories. In physical type and 

 in culture, the Arapaho belong to the Plains Indians. 



The Arapaho have generally been at peace with the Kiowa 

 and Comanche, and at war with their other neighbors. They 

 had no permanent settlements, nor any fixed dwellings. They 

 lived exclusively in tents made of buffalo-skins. For food 

 they were dependent on the herds of buffalo that roamed 

 through their country; and much of their clothing and many 

 of their implements were derived from the same animal. 

 Agriculture was not practised. They had the sun-dance that 

 existed among most of the Plains Indians, and possessed a 

 ceremonial organization of warrior companies similar to that 

 of several other tribes. 



The Arapaho men have generally been described as more 

 reserved, treacherous, and fierce, and the women as more un- 

 chaste, than those of other tribes. Those acquainted with 

 their psychic nature have characterized them as tractable, 

 sensuous, and imaginative. 



The fullest and most accurate account of the Arapaho has 

 been given by James Mooney.' On several points, however, 

 Mr. Mooney's information does not agree with that obtained 



■ Ghost-Dance Religion (Fourteenth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 653 

 et seq.) 



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