Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

76 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
and settle in general meeting all questions of any
importance" (NA, 1910).
Lone Bear was head councilman and main
spokesman on the council, and Yellow Calf was
next in prominence. These leaders were headmen
from the two main bands on the reservation.
Although Lone Bear and Yellow Calf were the
primary spokesmen, they merely articulated the
consensus of the council as a whole. A search of
all council minutes filed in the National Archives
reveals that when the council voted on reservation
matters, the Arapahoes almost always voted
unanimously.
Periodically, the Arapahoe business council
met jointly with the Shoshone business council,
which represented the Shoshones. In their talks
with Indian Office officials the councilmen
worked to suppress dissension among themselves
and to present a unified view on most reservation
problems. Militant confrontations with BIA personnel
were deliberately delegated to councilmen
from one of the Shoshone factions referred to by
Arapahoes and Shoshones as the "Mixed Bloods"
(Fowler, 1982:147-148).
The Ceremonial Elders, a group of Arapahoe
ritual authorities who supervised all tribal religious
ceremonies, had considerable influence over
the councilmen, as well as over Arapahoes in
general. Attempts to attain personal, supernatural
powers by and large ceased after reservation
settlement, when Arapahoes were no longer going
to war. Concomitantly with the demise of the
quest for personal medicine power, the authority
of the Ceremonial Elders was augmented because
these officials were increasingly relied upon for
mediation with the supernatural. The Sun Dance,
which was directed by the Ceremonial Elders,
gradually became the only avenue to ritual status
for most Arapahoes. Despite Indian Office prohibition
of the ceremony, it apparently was held
annually with the exception of a ten-year period
from 1913 to 1922. The introduction of Christianity
was not competitive with native Arapahoe
religion; rather, Arapahoes participated in both
Christian ritual and the native religion. Arapahoes
skillfully played off the Catholic and Episcopal
missions against one another, involving
themselves in the Catholic mission program when
the Episcopal missionary pressed the abandonment
of native customs and values, and participating
in Episcopal programs when the Catholics
opposed Arapahoe ceremonies too vigorously. Revitalization
movements, including peyote and the
Crow Dance, were introduced among the Arapahoes;
but these movements, like Christianity,
augmented rather than conflicted with traditional
ritual life (Fowler, 1982:122-126, 136-137).
The first council members (men like Lone Bear,
Yellow Calf, Goes In Lodge) were middle-aged
individuals who had personal medicine power.
Most were ex-warriors. By about 1930, a compartmentalization
of secular and sacred authority
had begun to develop. Men with high positions
in the ceremonial leadership hierarchy did not
serve as councilmen or directly involve themselves
in political interaction with Whites; secular leadership
was relegated to middle-aged men or occasionally
to elderly men without authority in the
sacred sphere. Yet, the Ceremonial Elders had a
great deal of influence. They chose the councilmen,
had what amounted to veto power in matters
of importance, and were always consulted on
major issues. (See Fowler, 1978, for a more complete
discussion of the ways sacred and secular
leadership interpenetrate among the Arapahoes.)
Most of the older councilmen spoke and understood
English fairly well, but one or two middleaged
bilinguals were asked to serve on the council
so that they could interpret for the senior councilmen.
In sum, on the surface of it, Arapahoe business
councilmen accommodated themselves to a
Western model of political organization. But they
also related to their constituents and toward each
other in ways that reflected and reinforced political
values of unanimity, generosity, modesty, and
respect for the authority of the aged. They acted
as intermediaries and spokesmen, articulating
group consensus. For these reasons, the business
councilmen had marked success at generating
and retaining the support of their constituents.
Until the 1930s, the councilmen usually served
until death or retirement, several for terms as
long as twenty or twenty-five years.