The causes of the Arikara War are not well recorded, but the trading relationship of the Arikara with white traders is certainly a factor.

The Arikara live in permanent settlements for most of the year where they farm, fish and hunt buffalo on the surrounding plains.

However, this is insufficient to sustain them and they rely on being a center of trade with neighboring tribes to survive.

Ashley's expedition to directly acquire furs and pelts cuts out the Arikara in their role as trading middle-men and is thus a direct threat to their livelihood.

There is also the issue of their desire to have a trading post on their territory so that they can have easy access to manufactured goods.

They resent the fact that their long-time enemies, the Sioux, have such posts, but they do not.

Ashley had been asked to set up a trading post when he was in the area in 1822.

Not wishing to limit his operations by having to maintain a permanent base, Ashley had instead promised the Arikara that he would have the goods they asked for shipped to them directly from St. Louis.

Ashley had not made good this promise at the time of his 1823 expedition, and possibly never intended to.

A further source of resentment, although probably not a direct cause of the war, had been the death of the Arikara chief Ankedoucharo during a visit to Washington in 1806.

Ankedoucharo had died of natural causes, but it was widely believed among the Arikara that he was deliberately murdered.

The initial episode at the Arikara villages on June 2 reaches international level when some hinted, that the British Hudson's Bay Company is the mastermind behind it all.

The plot, so some believe, is to put a wedge between the American fur traders and the Arikaras.

The British deny this.