Description
Arikara also known as Sahnish, Arikaree, Ree, or Hundi, are a tribe of Native Americans in North Dakota. Today, they are enrolled with the Mandan and the Hidatsa as the federally recognized tribe known as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. The Arikara's name is believed to mean "horns", in reference to the ancient custom of wearing two upright bones in their hair. The name also could mean "elk people" or "corn eaters". The Arikara were culturally related to the Pawnee, from whom they broke away and moved gradually northward, becoming the northernmost Caddoan tribe. Before American colonization of the Plains, the Arikara lived along the Missouri River between the Cannonball and Cheyenne rivers in what are now North Dakota and South Dakota. The Arikara were apparently a group met by Lewis and Clark in 1804; their population of 30,000 was reduced to 6,000 by smallpox.
Language
Arikara is a Caddoan language spoken by the Arikara Native Americans who reside primarily at Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Arikara is close to the Pawnee language, but they are not mutually intelligible.
Culture
The Arikara traditionally lived in substantial semipermanent villages of earth lodges, domed earth-berm structures. They relied upon raising maize, beans, squash, sunflowers, and tobacco; Arikara households used these products and traded them with other tribes for meat and processed hides. Arikara women were responsible for farming, food preparation and preservation, clothing production, lodge building, and the rituals associated with their work; Arikara men hunted deer, elk, and buffalo, provided defense, and performed rituals related to these practices.