BULLETIN 



OF THE 



American Museum of Natural History. 



Volume XVIII, 1902. 



THE ARAPAHO. 



By Alfred L. Kroeber. 



Plates I-XXXI. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



In 1899 Mrs. Morris K. Jesup generously provided the 

 means for a study of the Arapaho Indians, and the writer 

 was entrusted with the work. He visited that portion of the 

 tribe located in Oklahoma in 1899, the Wyoming branch and 

 a ntunber of neighboring/ribes in 1900, and theGros Ventres 

 and Assiniboines in igoiT The principal results of his studies 

 are contained in the present volume, in which the general 

 culture, decorative art, mjrthology, and religion of the Ara- 

 paho will be described. Two preliminary articles on the 

 decorative symbolism of the Arapaho have been published 

 by the writer, — 



Symbolism of the Arapaho Indians (Bulletin of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, Vol. XIII, 1900, pp. 69-86). 



Decorative Symbolism of the Arapaho (American Anthropologist, 

 N. S., Vol. Ill, i9oi,pp. 308-336)- 



The former is a preliminary general account of Arapaho 

 symbolism and art, stress being laid particularly on the sym- 

 bolism. Both decorative art and the more or less picto- 

 graphic symbolism connected with religion are included in the 

 scope of this paper. The second paper deals with the question 

 of the origin of symbolic decoration. 



A. L. K. 

 New York, July, 190 1. 



[May, igoa] [1] 1 



