deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

“The Arapaho (/əˈræpəhoʊ/ ə-RAP-ə-hoh; French: Arapahos, Gens de Vache) 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”, alapúuxaache. The Arapaho autonym is Hinono’eino or Inun-ina (“our people” or “people of our own kind”). They refer to their tribe as Hinono’eiteen (Arapaho Nation). The Cheyenne called them Hitanwo’iv or Hetanevoeo/Hetanevo’eo’o (“People of the Sky” or “Cloud People”); the Dakota as Mahpíyato (“Blue Cloud Men”), and the Lakota and nAssiniboine referred to them as Maȟpíya thó (“Blue Sky People”).”

“The Arapaho Flag was created in 1936 as a sign of respect and remembrance for the Arapaho War Veterans. The three colors used each have a different meaning and symbolism:

• Red is for the People.
• Black so the People will be strong and unfearing of death.
• White represents knowledge to be passed on to the young.
• The seven stripes each represent one of the Seven Medicines of Life.
• The White triangle signifies the way one begins a prayer. “Hey-so-no-ne-hoe-.” “Great Spirit, that’s the way I want it.”
• The circle in the exact center of the triangle is Black on the left, because that’s where the heart is.
• The right side of the circle is Red representing the human side, for our happiness, strength and sorrowful ways.
• The White line dividing the two spheres represents the Great Spirit so we will not forget who created us. The entire circle represents the world, the center of our lives. The Arapaho People approved and adopted the flag in 1956”