Arikara

Arikara , Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Caddoan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages ). Archaeological evidence shows that they occupied the banks of the upper Missouri River since at least the 14th cent. A semisedentary group, they lived in earth-covered lodges. In winter they hunted buffalo, returning to their villages for spring planting; the Arikara were influential in bringing agricultural knowledge from the Southwest to the prehistoric peoples of the upper Missouri River. They traded corn with hunting tribes in return for buffalo hides and meat, and they were active in bartering with early white traders, who frequently called them the Rees. They were closely associated with the Mandan and the Hidatsa ; these three tribes now share the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. There were some 1,600 Arikara in the United States in 1990.

Bibliography: See D. J. Lehmer, Arikara Archaeology (1968); E. T. Denig, Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri (1975).

Arikara Indians, Plains tribe devoted to bison hunting and maize agriculture, are considered a branch of the Pawnee. During the 19th century the Arikara lived in villages on the Missouri River in North Dakota, where, as early as 1700, French traders had established relations with them. Warfare with aggressive tribes and the ravages of smallpox nearly exterminated some of their villages, and they became allies of the Mandan and Hidatsa. In 1804, when Lewis and Clark visited them, they were disposed to be friendly toward the U.S., but later they became hostile. Their conflicts with the Americans were concluded by a treaty (1825) in which they acknowledged the supremacy of the U.S. government and agreed to trade only with American citizens. They are frequently spoken of, from the name of their reservation, as the Fort Barthold Indians. They appear in Neihardt's Song of Hugh Glass and Song of the Indian Wars.

Pawnee Caddoan-speaking tribe of Native North Americans. They are related to the Arikara, who once occupied the Central Platte and Republican River areas in Nebraska. In the mid-1990s, some 1,500 lived on reservations in Oklahoma.