Arapaho History Timeline

Chief Niwot led a band in Northern Colorado. He later died from wounds sustained during the Sand Creek Massacre.

Image source: Chief Niwot

On April 12, 1864, a rancher brought troops to attack 15 warriors who had asked to be rewarded for returning his mules. The incident was one of the episodes contributing to escalating violence in Colorado.

Image source: Colorado War

In November 1864, Colorado militia led by Colonel John Chivington massacred a small village of Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek. The attack became one of the defining atrocities in Arapaho and Cheyenne history.

Image source: Sand Creek massacre

On October 14, 1865, nearly a year after the Sand Creek Massacre, the Arapaho and Cheyenne signed a new treaty with the United States government.

Red Cloud’s War was fought from 1866 to 1868 between United States soldiers and an alliance of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho.

Image source: Red Cloud's War

The nine-article treaty signed by the Arapaho and Cheyenne was ratified on May 22, 1866.

The Fetterman Fight, also called the Battle of the Hundred in the Hand, was the most significant battle of Red Cloud’s War. Indian forces fought the United States on December 21, 1866.

Image source: Fetterman Fight

The treaty ratified in 1866 was later proclaimed on February 2, 1867, completing another formal stage in its recognition by the United States.

In October 1867, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and Plains Apache people seeking peace were offered the opportunity to sign the Medicine Lodge Treaty.

Image source: Medicine Lodge Treaty

After the allied tribes defeated the United States during Red Cloud’s War, the Treaty of Fort Laramie legally guaranteed a large part of Cheyenne and Arapaho territory and most Sioux territory within the Great Sioux Reservation.

Image source: Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

The Great Sioux War of 1876–77, also known as the Black Hills War or Great Cheyenne War, was fought between an alliance of Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho and the United States Army.

Image source: Great Sioux War of 1876

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought on June 25–26, 1876, was the most significant battle of the Great Sioux War and involved the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho alliance against the United States Army.

Image source: Battle of the Little Bighorn

Sherman Coolidge, also known as Runs-on-Top, was an Episcopal minister and educator in the Wind River community and a founding member of the Society of American Indians.

Image source: Sherman Coolidge

Since 1878, the Northern Arapaho have lived with the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. They are federally recognized as the Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation.

Image source: Wind River Indian Reservation

In 1995, Dr. S. N. Greymorning established an Arapaho language immersion preschool program, extending Northern Arapaho efforts to preserve and transmit the language to children.

Image source: Arapaho language

In 1999, Benjamin and Gail Ridgley organized Northern Arapaho runners for a journey from Limon, Colorado, to Ethete, Wyoming. The run commemorated ancestors forced to run for their lives after being attacked and pursued by Colonel Chivington and his battalion.

According to Cowell and Moss’s 2008 study of the Arapaho language, the Northern Arapaho made a significant effort to maintain the language through the Language and Culture Commission.

In 2012, the Wind River Hotel, attached to the Wind River Casino, featured a cultural room called the Northern Arapaho Experience.