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Hidatsa. A Siouan tribe living, since first known to
the whites, in the vicinity of the junction of Knife river with the
Missouri, North Dakota, in intimate connection with the Mandan and
Arikara. Their language is closely akin to that of the Crows, with
whom they claim to have been united until solve time before the
historic period, when the two separated in consequence of a quarrel
over the division of some game, the Crows then drawing off farther
to the west.
The name Hidatsa, by which they now call themselves,
has been said, with doubtful authority, to mean 'willows,' and is
stated by Matthews to have been originally the name only of a
principal village of the tribe in their old home on Knife river.
(see Elahsa ). It probably came to be used as
the tribe name, after the smallpox
epidemic of 1837, from the consolidation of the survivors of the
other two villages with those of Hidatsa. By the Mandan they are
known as Minitarí, signifying
'they crossed the water,' traditionally said to refer to their
having crossed Missouri river from the east. The Sioux call them
Hewaktokto, said to mean 'dwellers on a ridge,' but more probably
signifying 'spreading tipis,' or 'tipis in a row,' the name by which
they are known to the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The sign gesture in each
case would be nearly the same (Mooney). The Crows call them Amashi,
'earth lodges,' and they are now officially known as Gros Ventres, a
name applied also to the Atsina, a detached tribe of the Arapaho.
According to their own tradition the Hidatsa came from
the neighborhood of a lake north east of their later home, and
identified by some of their traditionists with Mini-wakan or Devils
lake, N. Dak. They had here the circular earth-covered log house, in
use also by the Mandan, Arikara,
and other tribes living close along the upper Missouri, in addition
to the skin tipi occupied when on the hunt. Removing from there,
perhaps in consequence of attacks by the Sioux, they moved southwest
and allied themselves with the Mandan, who then lived on the west
side of the Missouri, about the mouth of Heart river. The three
tribes, Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara were all living in this
vicinity about 1765. From the Mandan the Hidatsa learned
agriculture. Some time before 1796 these two tribes moved up the
river to the vicinity of Knife river, where they were found by Lewis
and Clark in 1804, the Hidatsa being then in three villages
immediately on Knife river, while the Mandan, in two villages, were
a few miles lower down, on the Missouri. The largest of the three
villages of the tribe was called Hidatsa and was on the north bank
of Knife river. The other two, Amatiha and Amahami, or Mahaha, were
on the south side. The last named was occupied by the Amahami (Ahnahaway
of Lewis and Clark), formerly a distinct but closely related tribe.
In consequence of the inroads of the Sioux they had been so far
reduced that they had been compelled to unite with the Hidatsa, and
have long since been completely absorbed.
The three villages together had a population of about
600 warriors, equivalent to about 2,100 souls. Of these the Amahami
counted about 50 warriors. There was no change in the location of
the villages until after the terrible smallpox epidemic of 1837,
which so greatly reduced the Indian population of the upper
Missouri, and in consequence of which the survivors of the three
villages consolidated into one. In 1845 they, and about the same
time the remnant of the Mandan also, moved up the river and
established themselves in a new village (see Hidatsati) close to the
trading post of Ft Berthold, on the north bank of the Missouri and
some distance below the entrance of the Little Missouri, in North
Dakota. In 1862 the Arikara moved up to the same location, the three
tribes now occupying a reservation of 884,780 acres on the north
east side of the Missouri, including the site of the village. In
1905 the Hidatsa (Gros Ventres) were officially reported to number
only 471.
Early writers describe the Hidatsa as somewhat superior
intellectually and physically to their neighbors, although according
to Matthews this is not so evident in later days. In home life,
religious beliefs and customs, house building, agriculture, the use
of the skin boat, and general arts, they closely resembled the
Mandan with whom they were associated. Their great ceremony was the
Sun dance, called by them Da-hpi-ke, which was accompanied with
various forms of torture. Their warriors were organized into various
military societies, as is the case with the Plains tribes generally.
Morgan (Anc. Soc., 159, 1877) gives a list of 7 Hidatsa
"gentes," which were probably really original village names, or
possibly society names, viz:
Mit-the-ro'ka ('knife'),
Min-ne-pä-ta ('water'),
Bäho-hä'-ta
(`lodge')
Seech-ka-be-ruh-pä'ka (`prairie
chicken'),
E-tish-sho'-ka ('hill people'),
Ah-nali-ha-nä'-me-te (an unknown
animal),
E-ku'-pä-be-ka ('bonnet').
The list of" bands" given by Culbertson (Smithson. Rep.
1850,143,1851) is really a list of military societies, viz: Fox,
Foolish Dog, Old Dog, Bull, and Blacktailed Deers.
Gros Ventres (French,
'big bellies') A term applied by
the French, and after them by others, to two entirely distinct tribes:
(1)
the Atsina, or Hitunena, a detached band of the Arapaho, and
(2)
the Hidatsa, or Minitari. In the Lewis and Clark narrative of
1806 the former are distinguished as Minitarees of Fort de Prairie and the
latter as Minitarees of the Missouri, although there is no proper warrant
for applying the name Minitari to the Atsina. The two tribes have also
been distinguished as Grosventres of the Missouri (Hidatsa) and
Grosventres of the Prairie (Atsina). The name as applied to the Atsina
originates Irons the Indian sign by which they are designated in the sign
language, a sweeping pass with both hands in front of the abdomen, intended
to convey the idea of 'always hungry,' i. e., 'beggars.' A clew to its
application to the Hidatsa is given in the statement of Matthews (Hidatsa,
43, 1877) that the Hidatsa formerly tattooed parallel stripes across the
chest, and were thus sometimes distinguished in picture writings. The
gesture sign to indicate this style of tattooing would be sufficiently
similar to that used to designate the Atsina to lead the careless observer
to interpret both as "Gros Ventres." The ordinary sign now used by the
southern Plains tribes to indicate the Hidatsa is interpreted to mean
'spreading tipis' or 'row of lodges.'
