Lifeways

By the 1800s, the Arapaho had adopted lifeways into a typical tribe of the Great Plains Culture Area. They were master horse trainers and riders, using their horses to hunt buffalo and to carry out raids on other Indians and on white settlers. They lived in buffalo-skin tipis. They changed their campsites often, following the migrations of buffalo herds.

Three customs shared by many of the tribes that migrated onto the plains—classified together as PLAINS INDIANS—are secret societies, medicine bundles, and the Sun Dance.

The secret societies of the Plains Indians were clubs built around the act of warfare. The societies had different initiation rites, pre-battle and post-battle ceremonies, songs and dances, and costumes. In the case of Arapaho, the eight secret societies were age-graded. That is to say,

Arapaho leather and bead toy horse

Boys of a certain age joined one society, then graduated into others. Other tribes with age-graded military societies were the Gros Ventre, Blackfeet, MANDAN, and HIDATSA. Some tribes with nongraded military societies, often with membership determined by invitation only, were the Cheyenne, SIOUX (DAKOTA, LAKOTA, NAKOTA), CROW, ASSINIBOINE, and OMAHA.

Medicine bundles were containers of various shapes and sizes with objects inside thought to have magical powers. Some were owned by individual Indians, and the owner might have seen the objects in a dream or vision during his vision quest, the ceremony that marked the passage into adulthood. Medicine bundles belonging to the medicine men were used in healing ceremonies. Each secret society had its own medicine bundles. Other medicine bundles belonged to the whole tribe. The most important medicine bundle for the Cheyenne contained many objects, including a hat made from the hide of a buffalo, plus four arrows, two for warfare and two for hunting. The Sioux treasured a pipe supposedly given to the tribe by a white buffalo calf. The most sacred object of the Arapaho was the flat pipe, a long tobacco pipe with a stem about the length of a man’s arm. It was wrapped in a bundle, to be opened and smoked only on special occasions and with elaborate rituals. Another sacred relic of the tribe kept in a bundle was a wheel or hoop.

Arapaho drumstick with head of green-painted hide and quillwork eagles on both sides

For the Arapaho many everyday acts had symbolic meaning. For instance, when Arapaho women crafted beadwork on clothing, bags, or tipis, or when they painted designs with vegetable coloring, they were using shapes and colors with special significance, sometimes depicting tribal legends or spiritual beings.

An important ceremony for the Arapaho was the Sun Dance, also called the Offerings Lodge by the Ara-paho, which they used to ask for the renewal of nature and future tribal prosperity. This event took place once a year, when berries were ripening. The Lodgemaker directed the construction of an enclosure of poles and greenery. A sacred tree trunk was erected at the center, and a rawhide doll was usually tied to the top. The various societies performed complex rituals around the tree, many of them involving medicine bundles, and gazed toward the Sun. The Offerings Lodge was a test of endurance for Arapaho participants. They went without food or sleep for days. But the Arapaho version of the ritual did not involve extreme self-torture. Among some Plains tribes, participants, attached to the sacred tree by ropes and wooden skewers in their chests, danced backward until their flesh actually ripped.