This term is also an old word for “god” or “man-above,” which dates from prior to White contact. The Crow is the messenger from and guide to the world beyond, in some accounts (Kroeber, The Arapaho, p. 347).
The Crow was and is extremely important in Arapaho ceremony. The Crow Dance, which was a later derivation of the Ghost Dance, featured the Crow as the central emblem, and Crow feathers were widely used in both the Ghost and Crow Dances for making ceremonial items. The Crow, like the Meadowlark, is said to speak Arapaho (Hilger, p. 41). They say: grandma, bread! = ‘neiwoo, co’ocoo’