"Ni'iihi': In a Good Way": Photographs of Wind River Arapaho, 1976-1996

Currently On Loan to the Wyoming Humanities Council Office - Laramie, Wyoming

Ni'iihi' is a phrase in the Arapaho language that means living "in a good way." While participating as dynamic members of Wyoming communities, Northern Arapaho people continue to follow cultural values and traditions that enable them to live in a good way.

This exhibition of black and white photographs by Sara Wiles, a cultural anthropologist from Lander, Wyoming, provides insight into such values and traditions that guide contemporary Arapaho life. The exhibition also honors Arapaho individuals who contribute much to their own communities as leaders, artists, educators, and traditionalists.

The Northern Arapaho, as one of two American Indian tribes with contemporary homelands in Wyoming, are an important part of the state's heritage as well as its future. From the time they settled on the Plains in the late 18th century, the Arapaho people traveled throughout the region, including present Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, following the vast herds of buffalo that once roamed the prairies. As Plains tribes were placed on reservations in the late 19th century, the Northern Arapaho were located with the Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation of Wyoming in 1877.

A Southern Arapaho contingent was settled with the Southern Cheyenne in western Oklahoma. Despite the geographic separation, the Northern and Southern Arapaho continue to have important social and ceremonial ties maintained through frequent visits between the two areas.

Josephine Redman was born May 18, 1903. She is the mother of nine children and has over 60 great grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren. She has been a noted beadworker and tipi maker. Her Arapaho name, "Bee'eenesei," was given to her when she was young. No one is exactly sure of the translation. Josephine died in 1997.