Colonial context and age group relations among plains Indians

Federal policy toward American Indians has taken two approaches: 1)protection and close supervision or "paternalism," or 2) quick assimilation of Indians into mainstream society. Both approaches involved undermining the influence and prestige of elderly Indians. The northern division of the Arapaho was subjected to protection and close supervision and the southern division to abrupt assimilation. This paper compares how federal policy toward Wyoming and Oklahoma Arapaho from the 1870s to the present affected the elderly's status and role in Arapaho society. The comparison shows that in Oklahoma the elderly, who no longer direct native religious rituals, have less authority and prestige than in Wyoming and that their circumstances are largely the product of the execution of the assimilation policy in Oklahoma. The research also shows that while the economic contribution of the elderly to family subsistence was undermined to a greater extent in Oklahoma than in Wyoming, of equal importance in the Wyoming Arapaho elders' retension of authority was their continued ability to direct religious ritual.