Category Archives: Quotes

“Red Cloud originally Mahpiua Luta: (1822-1909) American Indian leader. Born in present-day Nebraska, Red Cloud, as principal chief of the Oglala Teton Lakota (Sioux), led the opposition of both Sioux and Cheyenne to the U.S. government’s development of the Bozeman Trail to goldfields in Montana Territory (1865-67), Relentlessly attacking workers along the route from Fort Laramie (in modern Wyoming) to Montana, he refused offers to negotiate until the U.S. agreed to halt the project, whereupon he laid down his arms and allowed himself to be settled on the Red Cloud Agency in Nebraska.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

“Arapaho: Plains Indian people of Algonquian language stock who lived along the Platte and Arkansas rivers in the 19^th century. Like other Plains groups, the Arapaho were nomadic, living in teepees and depending on the buffalo for subsistence. They were highly religious and practiced the sun dance. Their social organization included age-graded military societies as well as men’s shamanistic societies. They traded with the Mandan and Arikara and were often at war with the Shoshone, Ute, and Pawnee. A southern branch was long allied with the Cheyenne and fought with them against Colonel G.A. Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876. Today about 2,000 Arapaho live in Wyoming and another 3,000 Arapaho/Cheyenne in Oklahoma.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.