Survival

There was three primary ways that the Arapaho obtained their food (bii3wo) besides the use of trade. The Arapahos hunted for meat and used gathering techniques to acquire plants and berries.

Before the Arapaho had pots and pans, they would use rocks to boil their meat in. First they would pound a hole in the rock then add the water and meat. Next, they placed it over a fire to boil. They also would place little rocks in the fire and once they were heated up, take them out with sticks and place them in the water. In order to start these fires, they would take bark and shred it real fine, then would clap sandstone rocks together and the sparks would start a fire.

Animal heads were used as a type of bowl to pound meat inside. To prepare the animal head, they would soak it and then stuff it with swamp grass. Then it was staked out until it dried. Once that was finished, it was then used to pound the meat inside of these heads.

The Arapaho used square pieces of rawhide as their plates to eat the food off of. They also used gall bladders from animals and blew them up to carry water in. Eating utensils were generally made out of bones. The antlers of elk were cut and used like spoons. Usually that was to eat their soups with. Knives were made out of rib bones. They also used sticks to eat their food with, but mostly the Arapaho ate with their hands. A quick little “do and don’t”was that the Arapaho believed you should never stir with a knife or use it on the ground.

Hunting

Hunting was a very important food resource for the Arapahos. In fact, not only was it a way of providing food to the people, but it also contributed to shelter, clothing, and trade.

Once horses were introduced to the Arapaho, they focused on buffalo (hii3einoon) as their main food source. One of their most favorite parts of the buffalo to eat was the hump ribs or “híixóoon.”Other parts of the buffalo that were eaten included the inner organs, which were either cooked or eaten raw. These included the liver of the male buffalos, kidneys (tii3i3ii), and the brains (beteecii).  Just like we have delicacies today, the Arapahos also considered parts of the buffalo to be delicacies, which were the fat off of the buffalo’s back or “nonii”and the tongue (bei3on). The buffalo meat was also dried/jerked (ho’ouw) as well as pounded (3o’ohcoo). Some of us might find this strange today but the Arapaho also drunk the fresh blood (be’) from the buffalo as well as cooked it into a pudding (be’eek) or used it in a stew (hokok). To learn some recipes the Arapahos used that contained buffalo, see the resources section.

Gathering

The Arapaho relied on different types of tools for gathering food such as bags. One in particular is called the elk hoof bag, which was made out of elk legs. The four hoofs of the elk had to be placed a certain way before being sewn up to hold up the bag. Once this was completed, they sewed them up with sinew, stuffed them with a type of straw, and then dried them out, taking about a week to dry. Once the bag was finished, it was used to store berries, as well as many other things.

Unlike many of today’s vegetables that we buy at the grocery store today, the vegetables the Arapaho’s gathered were much smaller in size. For instance, they would gather wild carrots but they were only about three inches in size. They also gathered turnips.

It is not known when the Arapahos started using tipis as shelter but it is believed when they moved onto the plains. They used the tipi because not only is it very sturdy but it is very portable as well. When they first started using the tipis, they were very small and were transported by the women as well as by dogs. Once the horse was introduced around the 17th century, they were able to make the tipis much larger, stronger, and in one large piece to transport.

Tipis were made out of fifteen to twenty tanned buffalo hides and long wooden poles, usually made out of cedar or pine trees. The poles were completely stripped of all of their bark to make them smooth. A finished tipi could consist of sixteen to twenty poles tied together about three or four feet from the top. The buffalo hides were all sewed together to make one large piece and wrapped around the poles and attached at the top of the tipi. The longer pieces were the ones attached at the top because they were used as smoke flaps or also called “ears.”The Arapaho made small pockets at the tips of these flaps and the tips of the poles fit into the pockets. This way, the ears could be adjusted to control the ventilation of the tipi.

The Arapaho were able to stand up the tipis by starting at the base. They would take three poles that were the height of the hide cover and stand them up. When that happened, the remaining poles would be leaned into place at even intervals to form a circle. Next, they would tie all the poles together with a long piece of rope. One last pole is tied to the top of the hide cover between the two smoke flaps and used to lift them when needed.

During the winter months, the Arapaho women would construct windbreaks around the tipi to keep out the cold, snow and wind. These consisted of small trees that were tied together and leaned against the tipi and stood about ten or twelve feet high.

Arapaho women were in charge of making the clothing for their families out of animal skin. They used everything from deer to elk to buffalo. First they would have to scape all of the flesh off of the hides, then they would strech the skins on to pegs to dry stiff. This was called rawhide. The Arapaho women then took this rawhide and tanned it, turning it into soft buckskin. Finally, they cut the buckskin into smaller pieces and sewed them into clothes using sinew thread.

During the earlier days, when the Arapaho lived in the North woods, the women would wear a simple buckskin skirt and a poncho-style shirt. Later, when the Arapaho lived primarily on the plains, the Arapaho women wore moccasins, knee-length leggings, and a dress. The dress would be ankle-length, fringed with buckskin. For ornamentation, they used porcupine-quills, paint, elk-teeth, and beads. Their knee-length leggings laced in the front and were often decorated with yellow ochre and bands of quillwork.

Arapaho men wore a breechcloth, sometimes a shirt, hip-length leggings of deerskin, a robe and moccasins. The breechcloth, or breechblout, consisted of a rectangular piece of buckskin that was drawn between the legs and then tied around the waist. When the Arapaho men did wear the hip-length leggings, they had bands of quillwork and long fringes on the sides. The shirts were also poncho style, just like the women's, and were fringed with buckskin. In the 19th Century, the Arapaho men began wearing breastplates made out of hairpipe beads. Warriors often wore necklaces. They were symbolic designs that they based from their dreams.