Wasin'wakpa

Wašíŋ Wakpá, “Tallow River” in Lakota, is the South Platte River. It rises in the Rocky Mountains and flows onto the Colorado plains, where its valley joins mountain country to the grasslands. The name recalls the importance of bison fat to the Indigenous peoples who camped and hunted along the river. Arapaho tradition likewise remembers the confluence with Cherry Creek as a favored place for processing buffalo.