Arikara

Arikara

An Arikara warrior, ca. 1840—1843, by Karl Bodmer
Regions with significant populations
North Dakota
Languages
English, Arikara
Religion
Christianity, Native American Church
Related ethnic groups
Caddo, Kitsai, Pawnee and Wichita

Pre-contact distribution of Arikara

Arikara man, wearing a bearskin, 1908

Mandan and Arikara delegation.

Arikara /əˈrɪkərə/, also known as Sahnish, Arikaree or Ree, are a tribe of Native Americans in North Dakota. Today they are enrolled with the Mandan and the Hidatsa as the federally recognized tribe known as the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation.

Synonymy

The Arikara's name is believed to mean "horns", in reference to the ancient custom of wearing two upright bones in their hair. The name also could mean "elk people" or "corn eaters". They have sometimes been called the Arikaree, or the Ree.

Language

The Arikara language is a member of the Caddoan language family. Arikara is close to the Pawnee language, but they are not mutually intelligible. As of 2007, the total number of remaining native speakers was reported as ten, one of whom, Maude Starr, died on 20 January 2010. She was a certified language teacher who participated in Arikara language education programs.

History

Linguistic divergence between Arikara and Pawnee suggests a separation from the Skidi Pawnee in about the 15th century. The Arzberger Site near present-day Pierre, South Dakota, designated as a National Historic Landmark, is an archeological site from this period, containing the remains of a fortified village with more than 44 lodges. The Arikara lived as a semi-nomadic people on the Great Plains. During the sedentary seasons, the Arikara lived primarily in villages of earth lodges. While traveling or during the seasonal bison hunts, they erected portable tipis as temporary shelter. They were primarily an agricultural society, whose women cultivated varieties of corn (or maize). The crop was such an important staple of their society that it was referred to as "Mother Corn".

Traditionally an Arikara family owned 30–40 dogs. The people used them for hunting and as sentries, but most importantly for transportation in the centuries before the Plains tribes adopted the use of horses in the 1600s. Many of the Plains tribes had used the travois, a lightweight transportation device pulled by dogs. It consisted of two long poles attached by a harness at the dog's shoulders, with the butt ends dragging behind the animal; midway, a ladder-like frame, or a hoop made of plaited thongs, was stretched between the poles; it held loads that might exceed 60 pounds. Women also used dogs to pull travois to haul firewood or infants. The travois were used to carry meat harvested during the seasonal hunts; a single dog could pull a quarter of a bison.

In the late 18th century, the tribe suffered a high rate of fatalities from smallpox epidemics, which so reduced their population from an estimated 30,000 to 6,000, disrupting their social structure.

Due to their reduced numbers, the Arikara started to live closer to the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes in the same area for mutual protection. They migrated gradually from present-day Nebraska and South Dakota into North Dakota in response to pressure from other tribes, especially the Sioux, and European-American settlers. The remainder of the group was encountered in 1804 by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

During the Black Hills War, in 1876 some Arikara served as scouts for Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer in the Little Bighorn Campaign. The three tribes are settled on the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota.

See also

• Crow Creek massacre of 1325
• Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
• Arikara War
• Native American tribes in Nebraska

Further reading

• Gerald W. Wolff and Cash, Joseph H. Three Affiliated Tribes (1974), a study of the cultural relationships among the Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan. The book was the first published by the Institute of American Indian Studies at the University of South Dakota at Vermillion.
• "Institute of American Indian Studies, Overview: Our Future". usd.edu. Archived from the original on November 10, 2010. Retrieved November 14, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The Languages of Native North America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

External links

• Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation: Three Affiliated Tribes, official website
• "Promoting education and providing opportunities for Arikara youth"