English

osage orange

Scientific Name

Maclura pomifera

Arapaho

bee’exoo’ or bee’exooti’


Translation of the Arapaho

‘it has red bark’

Osage Orange and the Arapaho

Hunting and fishing item. this plant is sometimes called ‘bow wood/bois d’arcs’ in English and French, and was used by the Arapaho as well as other tribes for bows.

[Note: among Northern Arapahos (far from where the Osage Orange grows) this word is used interchangeably with niiyoo’oe for the Mountain Birch by some people, since that tree also has red bark.]