Everything about Arikara totally explained
Arikara (also Sahnish, Arikaree, Ree) refers to a group of
Native Americans that speak a
Caddoan language. They were a semi-
nomadic group that lived on the
Great Plains of
the United States of America for several hundred years. They lived primarily in
earth lodges, used
tipis while traveling from their villages, and were an
agricultural society. Their primary crop was corn (or
maize), and it was such an important aspect of their society that it was often referred to as "Mother Corn."
The Arikara moved from
South Dakota into
North Dakota, now on the
Fort Berthold reservation.
Their culture was decimated by
smallpox in the late 1830s, and due to their reduced numbers, they started to work closer to the
Mandan and
Hidatsa tribes who lived in the same area. Today the three tribes are still closely associated and are known as the
Three Affiliated Tribes.
During the
Black Hills War, Arikaras served as scouts for Lt. Col.
George Armstrong Custer on the
Little Bighorn Campaign.
Arikara is now spoken in
North Dakota by a very few elders. Only 20 speakers remain, in the
Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Arikara is very close to the
Pawnee language, but they're not mutually intelligible.
Arikara Economy
The Arikara were among the first people to successfully move to the Dakota
Missouri River area and utilize the
bison as a food source, probably around 1150 AD. They didn't live in tipis, except in certain circumstances. They originated in what is now central
Missouri, and were essentially a
Woodlands culture. They were hunters of the lowland river fauna, but their economy centered around hunting, gathering, fishing,and especially horticulture. During the move to the Dakotas, the Arikara brought this economic preference with them, focusing on the river bottoms for sustenance. In addition to their horticultural practices in the river bottoms, they became successful bison hunters. As with many Plains bison hunters, they hunted by several means. One technique was the use of a funnel-shaped triangular fence into which the herd or portions of it were herded into an ever smaller area, allowing the animals to be killed by bow or spear. The Arikara also drove the animals over jumps, panicking the herd to run over a cliff. They also set fire to the prairie grasses, creating a new crop of succulent shoots that could be detected by the bison for miles. Once the herd gathered, warriors in wolf skins would crawl among the herd and take an animal. Upon the introduction of the
horse by the Spanish, many Arikara adopted a more equestrian form of bison-hunting, or a
horse culture.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Arikara'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://arikara.totallyexplained.com">Arikara Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
