page_title: Arapaho
section_title: Enemies and warrior culture
hierarchical_section_title: Arapaho / Histories / Enemies and warrior culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting of an Arapaho warrior named "Black Man". Painted by E.A Burbank in 1899.
context_page_description: The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
  By the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed two tribes: the Northern Arapaho and Southern Arapaho. Since 1878, the Northern Arapaho have lived with the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and are federally recognized as the Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation. The Southern Arapaho live with the Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma. Together, their members are enrolled as the federally recognized Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
context_section_description: A large part of Arapaho society was based around the warrior. Most young men sought this role. After adopting use of the horse, the Arapaho quickly became master horsemen and highly skilled at fighting on horseback. Warriors had larger roles than combat in the society. They were expected to keep peace among the camps, provide food and wealth for their families, and guard the camps from attacks.
  Like other plains Indians, including their Cheyenne allies, the Arapaho have a number of distinct military societies. Each of the eight Arapaho military societies had their own unique initiation rites, pre- and post- battle ceremonies and songs, regalia, and style of combat. Unlike their Cheyenne, Lakota, and Dakota allies, the Arapaho military societies were age based. Each age level had its own society for prestigious or promising warriors of the matching age. As the warriors aged, they may graduate to the next society.
  Warriors often painted their face and bodies with war paint, as well as their horses, for spiritual empowerment. Each warrior created a unique design for the war paint which they often wore into battle. Feathers from birds, particularly eagle feathers, were also worn in battle as symbols of prestige and for reasons similar to war paint. Before setting out for war, the warriors organized into war parties. War parties were made up of individual warriors and a selected war chief. The title of war chief must be earned through a specific number of acts of bravery in battle known as counting coup. Coups may include stealing horses while undetected, touching a living enemy, or stealing a gun from an enemy's grasp. Arapaho warriors used a variety of weapons, including war-clubs, lances, knives, tomahawks, bows, shotguns, rifles, and pistols. They acquired guns through trade at trading posts or trade fairs, in addition to raiding soldiers or other tribes.
  The Arapaho fought with the Pawnee (Hooxeihiinenno' – "wolf people"), Omaha (Howohoono'), Ho-chunk, Osage (Wosootiinen, Wosoo3iinen or Wosoosiinen), Ponca (same as Omaha: Howohoono'), and Kaw (Honoho') east of their territory. North of Arapaho territory they fought with the Crow (Houunenno'), Blackfoot Confederacy (Woo'teenixteet or Woo'teenixtee3i' – ″people wearing black-feet″), Gros Ventre (Hitouunenno', Gros Ventre tribe: Hitouuteen), Flathead (Kookee'ei3i'), Arikara (Koonoonii3i' – ″people whose jaws break in pieces″), Iron Confederacy (Nehiyaw-Pwat) (Assiniboine (Nihooneihteenootineihino' - "yellow-footed Sioux"), Plains/Woods Cree (Nooku(h)nenno'; Plains Cree tribe: Nookuho' - "rabbit people"), Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwa) and Nakoda (Stoney)). To the west they fought with eastern Shoshone (Sosoni'ii; Shoshone tribe: Sosoni'iiteen) and the Ute (Wo'(o)teenehi3i' - ″cut throats″; Ute tribe: Wo'(o)teennehhiiteen). South of their territory they occasionally fought with the Navajo (Coohoh'oukutoo3i' – ″those who tie their hair in back of the head or in bunches″), Apache (Coo3o' – "enemy" or Teebe'eisi3i' – "they have their hair cut straight, hanging straight down", Ti'iihiinen – "killdeer people" refers especially to Jicarilla Apache) and various Pueblo peoples (Cooh'ookutoo3i' – "they tie their hair in a bundle").
  The Cheyenne (Hitesiino'), Sioux (Nootineihino'), Kiowa (Niiciiheihiinenno' – ″river people″ or Koh'ówuunénno' – ″creek people″; Kiowa tribe: Niiciiheihiiteen or Koh'ówuunteen), Plains Apache (3oxooheinen – "pounder people"), and Comanche (Coo3o' – sg. and pl., means: "enemy", like Apache) were enemies of the Arapaho initially but became their allies. Together with their allies, the Arapaho also fought with invading US soldiers, miners, and settlers across Arapaho territory and the territory of their allies.
caption: Painting of Black Man, an Arapaho warrior with face paint and feathers. By E.A Burbank, 1899.
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