Arapahoes, an Indian tribe which has for many years resided near the head waters of the Arkansas and Platte rivers. They are known also as Fall Indians, and were called by the French the Gros Ventres of the south. Gallatin supposed them to be the Querechos of early Spanish explorers in New Mexico. They style themselves Atsina. This is apparently another form of Asinais or Cenis, a confederation of tribes visited by La Salle at this point, and subsequently by Spanish missionaries and French traders. The Arapahoes, like the Asinais, are by language allied to the Caddoes. At the present time they are one of the five tribes constituting the Blackfeet confederacy. In 1822 they were a powerful tribe estimated at 10,000, but in 184-2 they had dwindled to 2,500 in 300 lodges, and, with the disappearance of the buffalo, are rap-idlv declining.