Wo’óoseinee’, known commonly as Black Coal, (c.1840-1893) was a prominent leader of the Northern Arapaho people during the latter half of the 19th Century. Serving as an intermediary between the Northern Arapaho and the United States, he helped lead the transition from free-roaming life and armed resistance to American expansion, to alliance and eventual settlement alongside the Eastern Shoshone at today's Wind River Indian Reservation.
Rise to leadership
Black Coal's name Wo’óoseinee’ refers to a story of him rolling in black ashes after a victory in a fight. (The name is not a reference to coal, the fossil fuel.) He rose to prominence due to his war deeds in the 1860s in the Powder River Country, in which the Arapaho allied with war parties of the Lakota and Cheyenne. Black Coal fought in engagements like the July 1865 Battle of Platte Bridge in which Caspar Collins was killed, and the attack on Fort Phil Kearney in December 1866.
In 1865 at the Battle of the Tongue River soldiers attacked Northern Arapaho leader Black Bear's camp of 500 people and killed 35 warriors. Following this, the Arapaho grew increasingly unable to raise large war parties of their own. By the late 1860s, alliance and negotiation, rather than armed resistance, became the path for the Arapaho. Starting in 1868, Arapahos regularly enlisted as scouts in the U.S. Army. Black Coal would come to serve as a major intermediary role in carrying out the conciliatory strategy, keeping Arapahos out of conflict with the United States and the Shoshones as much as he was able. While he was initially lower status than chiefs like Black Bear and Medicine Man (also known as Sorrel Horse), their deaths in 1870 and 1871 left Black Coal to be regarded as the leader of the Antelopes nischéhiinenno, the largest band of Northern Arapahoes.
Arapaho leadership
According to historian Loretta Fowler, leaders in the Northern Arapaho during the 1860s and 1870s did not rule by fiat or make decisions on an individual level. Instead, leaders were chosen by consensus of the tribe and with the blessing of the Water Pouring Old Men, ceremonial leaders who held the highest authority within the tribe. In this position, intermediary chiefs were expected to serve as go-betweens that could faithfully and powerfully argue for Arapaho interests and communicate Arapaho consensus to outsiders like U.S. Army generals, agency officials, and diplomats of the United States. This strategy helped to maintain Arapaho sovereignty and leadership structures, and also insulated ceremonial leaders from interactions with the United States. Fowler argues that this structure has persisted today in modified form, even as elected tribal council members act as the official political leadership of the Northern Arapaho, they are influenced by leadership of ceremonial elders.
The United States preferred to select "head chiefs" that could speak for all members of the tribe in negotiations. In this case, from 1871 Black Coal was considered the head Northern Arapaho chief by government officials, when in fact he had only the authority to speak the consensus of the tribe. Chief Sharp Nose was considered the second-ranking chief by government officials until Black Coal's death in 1893. In fact, Black Coal and Sharp Nose typically spoke the same consensus for their different bands.
Intermediary chief
Black Coal, along with Black Bear and Sorrel Horse, were Northern Arapaho signatories on the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), granting them rights to hunt north of the Platte River so long as game persisted. For the next few years, Black Coal alternately stayed near Red Cloud Agency, Fort Fetterman, and other posts to receive rations, and led his band on hunting expeditions.