Wars for the Great Plains

The Arapaho made war at one time or another against the SHOSHONE, UTE, PAWNEE, Crow, Sioux,

COMANCHE, and KIOWA. By 1840, the Arapaho had made peace with the Sioux, Comanche, and Kiowa.

Arapaho painted hide shield

Other 19th-century allies of the Arapaho were the Cheyenne.

The Arapaho played a major role in the wars with non-Indians for the Great Plains. The Northern Ara-paho, along with the Northern Cheyenne, fought alongside the Sioux in most of their wars for the northern plains. The Southern Arapaho fought as allies of the Southern Cheyenne in the wars for the central plains, and as allies of the Comanche and Kiowa in some of their conflicts for the southern plains. A number of Southern Arapaho died alongside Southern Cheyenne of Black Kettle’s band at the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado on November 29, 1864.

Two of the most famous Indian leaders in the plains wars were Black Bear of the Northern Arapaho and Little Raven of the Southern Arapaho. At the start of the War for the Bozeman Trail, described in detail under the entry SIOUX (DAKOTA, LAKOTA, NAKOTA), it was Black Bear’s band that suffered the only major Arapaho defeat at the hands of the U. S. Army, in 1865. Little Raven, famous for his grasp of legal issues and his oratorical abilities, proved a wily match for any negotiator the federal government could come up with.

By the terms of the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, in which Little Raven served as a spokesman for his people, the Southern Arapaho were placed on a reservation in the Indian Territory along with the Southern Cheyenne. The Northern Arapaho resisted placement on a reservation longer than their southern kin. By the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, they were supposed to settle on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota with the Sioux, but they wanted their own hunting grounds. In 1876, they were ordered to settle in the Indian Territory with their southern kin, but they insisted on staying in Wyoming. In 1878, the federal government pressured the Northern Shoshone, traditional enemies of the Arapaho, into accepting them on their Wind River Reservation.