Niineniiniicie

Niineniiniicie, “Tallow River” in Arapaho, names the South Platte and the country around its meeting with Cherry Creek. Flowing east from the Rocky Mountains onto the plains, the river passes a favored camping and bison-butchering place. Arapaho tradition remembers tallow in the water here, a reminder of the importance of the buffalo to food and ceremony. The valley lay within a homeland extending between the mountains and the open plains.

The later city of Denver lies here.