ARAPAHO (possibly from the Pawnee for “trader”), a tribe of North American Indians of Algonquian stock. They formerly ranged over the central portion of the plains between the Platte and Arkansas. They were a brave, warlike, predatory tribe. With the Sioux and Cheyennes they waged unremitting warfare upon the Utes. The southern divisions of the tribe were placed (1867) on a reservation in the west of Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), while the northern are in western Wyoming. The southern section sold their reservations in 1892 and became American citizens. The Arapahos number in all some 2000.
See Indians, North American; H. R. Schoolcraft, History of the Indian Tribes of the United States (1851–1857, 6 vols.); Handbook of American Indians, ed. F. W. Hodge (Washington, 1907).