Arikara Niitunu Beliefs and the Fur Trade
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Arikara Indian concepts of niitunu (evil medicine or witchcraft) are connected with epidemic diseases introduced by fur traders. The Arikara believed that evil medicine was one of the primary causes of disease and epidemics; they began to suspect and blame Euro-Americans for introducing unfamiliar crowd-type diseases among them. As a result, the Arikara view of traders in the nineteenth century changed from benign spirits to potential niitunu practitioners.