Arikara (U vri ku ru), "horn," referring to a traditional hairstyle. Their self-designation is Tanish, "Original People." In the historic period they were culturally similar to the Mandans.
Location Arikaras migrated from the central Plains into central South Dakota in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Today most live in western North Dakota.
Population The late-eighteenth-century Arikara population was approximately 3,000-4,000. In the early 1990s, enrollment in the Three Affiliated Tribes was about 6,000 people.
Language Arikara is a Caddoan language.
Historical Information
History Around the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Arikara separated from the Skidi Pawnee in Nebraska and moved north along the Missouri River, spreading knowledge of agriculture along the way. They arrived in the Dakotas in the late eighteenth century.
Contact with French traders was established in the 1730s. During the early to mid-eighteenth century they acquired horses and ranged even farther west, to eastern Montana, to hunt buffalo. In the 1780s the people suffered a smallpox epidemic but continued to live relatively well, despite harassment by Teton, Dakota, and other bands.
As a result of wars with the United States, the Arikara retreated south to join their Pawnee relatives on the Loup River in Nebraska from the early 1820s through about 1835. A devastating smallpox epidemic in 1837 brought them to the verge of extinction. About 1845, the weakened Arikara moved farther north and occupied land formerly under Mandan control (the latter having recently moved up the Missouri River with the Hidatsa).
In 1862, the Arikara also moved up the Missouri to the Mandan/Hidatsa village of Like-a-Fishhook and joined politically with those two tribes. Like-a-Fishhook Village was a center of trade and commerce at that time. The Fort Laramie Treaty of1851 recognized tribal holdings of more than 12 million acres.
In 1870, the United States established the eight-million-acre Fort Berthold Reservation for the tribes. This land was reduced, mostly by allotment, to about one million acres during the 1880s. By this time, Like-a-Fishhook had been abandoned, the people scattering to form communities along the Missouri River. The Arikara lived in Nishu and Elbowwoods, on the east side of the river.
In the 1950s, against the tribes’ vehement opposition, the United States built the Garrison Dam on the Missouri. The resulting Lake Sakakawea covered much of their land, farms, and homes. This event destroyed the tribes’ economic base and permanently damaged their social structure.
Religion The Arikara believed in a supreme deity who shared power with four lesser gods. Most religious festivals were associated with corn, which they originally acquired from the south and southwest. Medicine men possessed particularly fine, generations-old ears of corn, within which resided the spirit of "mother corn."
Religious activity included fasting, acquiring visions, and the possession and use of personal sacred bundles. Certain religious positions, such as the priesthood and the keeper of the sacred tribal medicine bundles, were hereditary within families.
Government Political centralization was weak among the Arikara. Villages combined in a loose confederation of named bands. Village chiefs made up the band council, which assisted the head chief.
Customs The Arikara were excellent swimmers; hauling trees out of the Missouri River provided them with firewood in an area short of trees. The game of shinny was particularly popular, as were feats of dexterity, skill, and magic. The people enjoyed building toys and whistles for and otherwise entertaining their children.
The Arikara men pictured here are members of the Medicine Fraternity. Most religious festivals were associated with corn, which the Arikara originally acquired from the south and southwest. Medicine men possessed particularly fine, generations-old ears of corn, within which resided the spirit of "mother corn."
A principal Arikara medicine man on his altar.
Families owned farms and dogs as well as dwellings. There were a number of mens’ societies, focused on the hunt and on keeping order, as well as women’s societies. Men hunted and provided protection; women were in charge of vegetable foods (garden plots), preparing hides for clothing as well as baskets and pottery, and caring for the lodge. Descent was matrilineal and residence was matrilocal. Social rank was hereditary to a significant degree. The dead were buried sitting, wrapped in skins, their faces painted red. A year of mourning followed a death.
Dwellings Arikaras located their villages on bluffs over the Missouri River. Later villages were strongly reinforced by wooden stockades and ditches. Partially excavated earth lodges measured about 40 feet in diameter and held two or more extended families. A wooden framework supported woven willow branches and grass covered with earth. A lodge might last up to 20 years. A larger structure, around which residential lodges were grouped, served as the medicine or ceremonial lodge. Skin tipis served as temporary field dwellings.
Diet Women grew corn (small, highly nutritious ears), squash, beans, and sunflowers, fertilizing their crops and rotating their fields. They also cultivated tobacco. Men hunted buffalo and other large and small game. They also fished and gathered berries and other plants.
Key Technology Material items included willow weirs (fish traps); farm equipment, weapons, and utensils from buffalo parts; stone mortars; pottery cooking vessels; a variety of baskets; and leather pouches and other containers.
Trade Women traded surplus crops to the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Lakota, and other groups for buffalo and other animal products. Later they traded with the French for European-made products. There was also some cultural and material exchange between the Arikara and the Mandan and the Hidatsa.
Notable Arts Pottery and basketry were traditional arts.
Transportation People used boats constructed of buffalo hide stretched over a willow frame (bull-boats) to cross the Missouri. They also wore snowshoes and used dogs and later (mid-eighteenth century) horses to pull travois.
Dress Women made blankets, robes, and moccasins of buffalo hide. They also made clothing of white weasel or ermine skin and made winter turbans of various animal skins.
War and Weapons The Arikara were alternately friendly and at war with the Mandans and Hidatsas. After about the late eighteenth century, the Lakota fought the Arikaras, cutting off both trading parties and buffalo hunters. Weapons included various flint projectiles and buffalo-hide shields.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations The Three Affiliated Tribes (Arikara, Hidatsa, Mandan) live on the Fort Berthold Reservation (roughly 900,000 acres in Dunn, McKenzie, McLean, Mercer, Mountrail, and Ward Counties, North Dakota). The 1990 reservation Indian population was 2,999. More than half of the reservation is owned by non-Indians.
Economy Tribal and federal governments are the largest employers. A few people have farms or ranches. The tribe opened a high-stakes casino in 1993. Unemployment remains very high.
Legal Status The Three Affiliated Tribes is a federally recognized tribal entity.
Daily Life Most Arikaras live on the east side of Lake Sakakawea, near the towns of White Shield and Parshall. Their lifestyle is similar to that of their non-Indian neighbors.
Although politically united, the three tribes continue to maintain separate identities. The annual powwow held by each reservation community has become a focus for tribal activities. War Bonnet dances help maintain an Indian identity. Crafts include quilting and beadwork. Some Arikara practice sweat lodge ceremonies and are members of the Native American Church. Most consider themselves Christians.
Only elders speak the native language, despite attempts to institute regular language classes. The community operates several reservation schools, and it publishes the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Times. There is a museum at New Town.
