Arapaho Tribe

Alternate Names: Arapahoe Ancestral Homelands: Great Lakes area and northern Minnesota, moving on to North Platte and Arkansas Rivers in Colorado Territory Cultural Group: Plains Indians Linguistic Group: Algonkian Location today: Northern Arapaho in southern Wyoming and northern Colorado and the Southern Arapaho in Oklahoma and southern Kansas Related Tribes and Groups: The Atsine or Gros Ventre are a branch of the Arapaho.

History
The population of the tribe in 1990 was estimated at 7,000.

Brief Timeline

 * 1700: migrate from Great Lakes region into the Great Plains
 * 1835: the tribe divided into the Northern Arapaho, who settled near the Rocky Mountains (Wyoming), and the Southern Arapaho who settled near the Arkansas River (Colorado).
 * 1851: Treaty at Fort Laramie
 * 1861: Treaty


 * 1864: Sand Creek Massacre, 130 Southern Arapaho and Cheyenne, many women and children, are killed by the U.S. Army, under the direction of Colonel John M. Covington.
 * 1865: Treaties
 * 1867: Treaty of Medicine Lodge, Southern Arapaho placed on a Reservation in Oklahoma, shared by the Cheyenne
 * 1868: Treaty at Fort Laramie -- Northern Arapaho were assigned to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota with the Sioux, but they sought their own lands.
 * 1876: Northern Arapaho rejected proposal to rejoin with the Southern Arapaho
 * 1878: Northern Arapaho assigned to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, shared with the Shoshone who were former enemies

Reservations
This tribe is primarily associated with the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming to which they were assigned in 1876, along with the Shoshone.

The Southern Arapaho were removed to a reservation in western Oklahoma in 1867; sharing the reservation with the Cheyenne. That reservation today is known by the combined name of Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation.

Additional References to the History of the Tribe

 * Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Arapaho tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods.
 * Additional details are given in David Bushnell's Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi.
 * The web page for the Northern Arapaho Tribe includes a history of the tribe.
 * For additional history of the tribe, read more....

Tribal Headquarters
Northern Arapaho:

Northern Arapaho Nation 533 Ethete Road Ethete, WY 82520 Phone: 307.332-.6120 or 307.856.3461 Fax: 307.332.7543

Southern Arapaho:

Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma P. O. Box 38 Concho, OK 73022 Phone: 405.262.0345 Fax: 405.422.7424

Website: www.c-a-tribes.org

Records
Agencies

The following agencies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had jurisdiction over the Arapaho for the time periods indicated. For details, see the page for the respective agency.

Arapaho


 * Upper Platte Agency, 1846-1855

Northern Arapaho


 * Upper Platte Agency, 1855-1871
 * Red Cloud Agency, 1871-1878
 * Pine Ridge Agency, 1878-1888
 * Shoshoni Agency, 1885-1937
 * Wind River Agency. 1938-present

Southern Arapaho


 * Upper Arkansas Agency, 1855-1874
 * Cantonment Agency, 1903-1917
 * Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, 1874-present

Census Records

Correspondence Records

Treaties


 * 1851 September 17, at Fort Laramie
 * 1861 February 18, at Fort Wise
 * October 14, 1861, at Little Arkansas River
 * 1865 October 17,
 * 1865
 * October 28, 1867, at Council Camp
 * 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge
 * 1868 April 29, at Fort Laramie
 * May 10, 1868, at Fort Laramie

Vital Records:


 * Cheyenne and Arapaho, M595, Births and Deaths 1925-1934, FHL Film: 574191

Important Web Sites

 * Northern Arapaho Tribe Official Website
 * Wikipedia article on the Arapaho