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The Arapaho are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed two tribes, namely the Northern Arapaho and Southern Arapaho. Since 1878, the Northern Arapaho have lived with the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and are federally recognized as the Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation. The Southern Arapaho live with the Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma. Together, their members are enrolled as the federally recognized Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
It is uncertain where the word 'Arapaho' came from. Europeans may have derived it from the Pawnee word for "trader", iriiraraapuhu, or it may have been a corruption of a Crow word for "tattoo", alapúuxaache. The Arapaho autonym is Hinono'eino or Inun-ina ("our people" or "people of our own kind"). They refer to their tribe as Hinono'eiteen (Arapaho Nation). The Cheyenne called them Hitanwo'iv or Hetanevoeo/Hetanevo'eo'o ("People of the Sky" or "Cloud People"); the Dakota as Mahpíyato ("Blue Cloud Men"), and the Lakota and Assiniboine referred to them as Maȟpíya thó ("Blue Sky People").
The Caddo (Toniibeenenno' or Toniibeeneseino' – "pierced nose people") called them Detseka'yaa, the Wichita (Hinosouno') Nia'rhari's-kûrikiwa'ahûski, and the Comanche Saria Tʉhka / Säretika (Sata Teichas), all names signifying "dog-eaters". The Pawnee, Ute and other tribes also referred to them with names signifying "dog-eaters".
The Northern Arapaho, who called themselves Nank'haanseine'nan or Nookhose'iinenno ("white sage men"), were known as Baantcline'nan or Bo'oociinenno ("red willow men") to the Southern Arapaho, whereas the latter were called by their northern kin Nawathi'neha or Noowunenno' ("Southerners"). The Northern Arapaho were also known as BSakuune'na' (Bee'eekuunnenno') ("blood-soup men").
The Cheyenne adapted the Arapaho terms and referred to the Northern Arapaho as Vanohetan or Vanohetaneo / Váno'étaneo'o ("Sage (Brush) People") and to the Southern Arapaho as Nomsen'nat or Nomsen'eo ("Southerners").