Arapaho. 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, alapuuxaache. The Arapaho autonym is or. They refer to their tribe as. The Cheyenne called them or; the Dakota as, and the Lakota and Assiniboine referred to them as. The Caddo called them, the Wichita, and the Comanche, 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 or, were known as or to the Southern Arapaho, whereas the latter were called by their northern kin or. The Northern Arapaho were also known as. The Arapaho recognize five main divisions among their people, each speaking a different dialect and apparently representing as many originally distinct but cognate tribes. Through much of Arapaho history, each tribal nation maintained a separate ethnic identity, although they occasionally came together and acted as political allies. Each spoke mutually intelligible dialects, which differed from Arapaho proper. Dialectally, the Haa'ninin, Beesowuunenno, and Hinono'eino were closely related. Arapaho elders claimed that the Hánahawuuena dialect was the most difficult to comprehend of all the dialects. In his classic ethnographic study, Alfred Kroeber identified these five nations from south to north: Nanwacinaha'ana, Nawathi'neha or Nanwuine'nan / Noowo3iineheeno. Their now-extinct language dialect-Nawathinehena-was the most divergent from the other Arapaho tribes. Hánahawuuena, Hananaxawuune'nan or Aanû'nhawa, occupying territory adjacent to, but further north of the Nanwacinaha'ana, spoke the now-extinct Ha'anahawunena dialect. Hinono'eino or Hinanae'inan spoke the Arapaho language. Beesowuunenno, Baasanwuune'nan or Basawunena resided further north of the Hinono'eino. Their war parties used temporary brush shelters similar to the dome-shaped shade or Sweat lodge of the Great Lakes Algonquian peoples. They are said to have migrated from their former territory near the Lakes more recently than the other Arapaho tribes. They spoke the now-extinct Besawunena dialect. Haa'ninin, A'aninin or A'ani, the northernmost tribal group; they retained a distinct ethnicity and were known to the French as the historic Gros Ventre. In Blackfoot they were called Atsina. They speak the nearly extinct Gros Ventre language dialect, there is evidence that the southern Haa'ninin tribal group, the Staetan band, together with bands of the later political division of the Northern Arapaho, spoke the Besawunena dialect. Before their historic geo-political ethnogenesis, each tribal-nation had a principalheadman. The exact date of the ethnic fusion or fission of each social division is not known. The elders say that the Hinono'eino and Beesowuunenno fought over the tribal symbols-the sacred pipe and lance. Both sacred objects traditionally were kept by the Beesowuunenno. The different tribal-nations lived together and the Beesowuunenno have dispersed for at least 150 years among the formerly distinct Arapaho tribal groups. By the late 18th century, the four divisions south of the Haa'ninin or Gros Ventre consolidated into the Arapaho. Only the Arapaho and Gros Ventre identified as separate tribal-nations.