Tribal elder William "Icky-John" C'Hair shares a brief history of the Northern Arapaho Tribe:

"I can tell you from observation, from my observation and the things I have experienced. Beyond that, I can talk about what I have been told by my parents and grandparents, how things were and how they used to be, how they have evolved and how they are told, and how we really want to be.

"Going back into our traditional stories, the way we used to tell of our nomadic ways, we used to range roughly from the Continental Divide, someplace into what is now the state of Montana, around Where the Water Comes Up, Old Faithful. From there, on into parts of Montana, down into Tongue River into the Black Hills, then across into Kansas and Nebraska, up into the border towns of New Mexico and Colorado. All of this territory on a yearly and seasonal basis at different points in this country, it was plentiful and a necessity. The buffalo ranged in some particular areas; berries were plentiful and ripe in certain parts; lodge poles were plentiful and accessible in other parts; medicinal plants grew in different climates and elevations. The wildlife, the elk, the deer, the antelope and moose, in various places were found in numerous amounts at various times of the year. The birds - sage grouse and other kinds of birds, the people knew where they were and they were plentiful.

"So, within this vast territory, they used to roam … fulfilling their needs and preparing for whatever season. Everything had a purpose, everything had a use. They were aware of all these things. The water was clean and unpolluted. There was fish in the water. Fur-bearing animals were utilized, the beaver, muskrat, mink.

"This free lifestyle in this area was described to me in this fashion by one of my grandparents: 'It is our abode, it is our teepee. The teepee has four main poles. One of our poles sits somewhere in the vicinity of Pike's Peak. Another one sits up there in the Yellowstone area. The door sits someplace in Kansas, and within this area, this is our lodge, this is our home. Everything is complete, everything is there.'

"All was provided for them by nature. It was like a Super Wal-Mart. … We could take as we needed, it was always there, always fresh. That's how it was: Perfect harmony in balance with the changes and cycles of the year, perfect unity of man with his environment.

"And then, change started to occur as the European peoples started to discover that there was a land of rich and plentiful. They started trickling in, first a little at a time, then a steady stream. Still today, our borders are overrun with people coming in. Everything is off balance now. It was during this period in time when the westward expansion started to occur. Manifest Destiny was implemented. More people began to come westward. As people came westward, people who made their livelihood here for years, their lifestyles and life ways became interrupted tremendously. We tried to be cordial, we tried to be diplomatic, but the intrusion was tremendous. More kept coming, more space was needed and demanded.

"And so, the people got displaced and the newcomers didn't respect the balance. Wildlife was depleted. They started to shoot bison just to be shooting. The Indians, they saw what was happening, how their way of life had been threatened. They tried to make some kind of arrangements with the intruders, giving them certain passageways, a trail as wide as a wagon takes. But after they had started to abuse and misuse the buffalo, all the animals, pretty soon, when they saw our people, they started shooting them, too. We tried to retreat to give them as much room as possible, tried to reach one kind of agreement that would be conducive. It was never an equal balance. The peace treaty era started, but nothing really did last. They would say that Indians were given certain lands, but each time we signed a treaty, something was taken away from us. Nothing was given, it was always ours.

"Pretty soon, these people started to dress up as Indian people. They were jealous of one another and wanted to get to the gold mines first. They'd attack each other dressed as Indians. Soon, the people on the plains were seeing renegade Indians under the beds and started hollering for the elimination of the Indian people. So they tried it. I think they would have been pretty successful except for the Civil War. It left the military out of the area for a while. But after the Civil War, they came over, and there were some who wanted to be the heroes. Custer … said he was going to rid the West of Indians, that was his mission.

"By this time, we knew we were going to have to fight or die. From that point on, my people sent all our women, children, old people, those who couldn't fight, south. Those willing and able to fight stayed in the north. These people who couldn't fight were the ones who got attacked at Sand Creek Nov. 29, 1864. Then, the same thing happened at Wounded Knee. Then the Indians of that time rallied together, got together, and on June 26, 1876, led Custer down the Big Horn River, set a trap for him and annihilated his troop.

"What happened then, they should have not stopped. They should have kept going, but they stopped and disbanded. … They won the battle, but not the war.

"Since that time, we were herded out to the reservations. In 1868, the Fort Laramie Treaty - the last of the Fort Laramie treaties - made our boundaries smaller again. And so, about 1878, we were brought onto the reservation under military guard. All of our knives, forks, anything that might be used as a weapon was confiscated. We were unable to leave the reservation. We were imprisoned.

"Then, within that space of time, the government started to send out missionaries to establish schools and to take the Indian out of the man, to acculturate him. And so our children were forced to attend schools. They were taken from their homes and brought to these places here. Their hair was cut, they were given Western-style clothing. Shoes were put on them when they had always worn moccasins. … Then they started to try to teach them. If they were caught trying to be who they were, they were severely punished.

"Some of that was successful, some of it was not successful. Some of them were able to withstand whatever they were subjugated to and still remain who they were.

"Then the time came, these people had to do some favors for families. In order to be in the good graces of these people, you had to be a good Christian. To be a good Christian meant to abandon Indian ways. Soon, it became fashionable to be Christian. Being Indian became backwards, became dumb, became heathen. A few maintained (the old ways), but more lost it; enough to matter. Now just a few of us speak (Arapaho).

"This place (St. Michael's Mission) burned in the '40s or '50s and never did open again. St. Stephen's was open until 1966. At that point in time, a bunch of students who were attending these schools were displaced. So, a few young men in their 20s came together and said they were going to do something to open our own school. They made trips to D.C., talked to senators, talked to congressmen. They listened good, but never did anything.

"Then Martin Luther King led the march into the capital and gave a speech at the base of the Washington Monument. He had his dream about the same time we had our dream. Civil rights became the national agenda. Then the Kennedys came in with human rights and all of those things.

"The first Indian Education Act was in 1972, and in 1972, we opened Wyoming Indian High School. It was based on preserving and enhancing our language, which interprets our way of life. This concept was so new, it had never been done and people didn't know how to react to it. It wasn't widely accepted. It took a while before the school was accepted. It took sports, basketball, to set records, for the school to be accepted and recognized, even by our own people.

"People were still hesitant. Today, they're still hesitant. They tolerate it, but don't really appreciate it.

"We're gonna do it anyway. … We believe, we firmly do believe, that the language was a gift from our Creator. And as such, it is sacred to us. Without it, we cannot exist in the manner the Creator intended for us."

Related Stories in this series can be found here:

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/08/28/news/wyoming/091d300f9d70f2978725706a0020fc12.txt

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/08/28/news/wyoming/263f922a082439228725706a0020fcc1.txt

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/08/28/news/wyoming/a4fb8c018de5f6768725706a0020fd18.txt