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Hidatsa Indian Tribe
Location
Hidatsa
Derived from the name of a former village and said, on somewhat doubtful
authority, to signify "willows."
Also called:
A-gutch-a-ninne-wug, Chippewa name, meaning "the settled people."
A-me-she', Crow name, meaning "people who live in earth houses."
Gi-aucth-in-in-e-wug, Chippewa name, meaning "men of the olden time."
Gros Ventres of the Missouri, traders' name, probably derived from the
sign for them in the sign language.
Hewaktokto, Dakota name.
Minitari, meaning "they crossed the water," said to have been given to
them by the Mandan, from the tradition of their first encounter with
the tribe on the Missouri.
Wa-nuk'-e-ye'-na, Arapaho name, meaning "lodges planted together."
Wetitsatn, Arikara name.
Connections
The Hidatsa belonged to the Siouan
linguistic stock, their closest relations within it
being the
Crow.
Location
They lived at various points on the
Missouri between the Heart and Little Missouri Rivers.
(See also
Montana and Canada.)
Subdivisions
Lewis and Clark (1804-5) give the following three names:
Amahami or Mahaha, on the south bank of Knife River, formerly an
independent
but closely related tribe.
Amatiha, on the south bank of Knife River.
Hidatsa, on the north bank of Knife River.
The band names given by Morgan are rather those of social divisions.
History
According to tradition, the Hidatsa formerly lived by a lake
northeast of their later country, one sometimes identified with Devil's Lake.
They moved from there to the mouth of Heart River, where they met and allied
themselves with the Mandan, and from them they learned agriculture. As we have
seen, Lewis and Clark found them on Knife River. In 1837 a terrible smallpox
epidemic wasted them so completely that the survivors consolidated into one
village which was moved in 1845 to the neighborhood of Fort Berthold, where the
tribe has ever since continued to reside. They have now been allotted lands in
severalty and are citizens of the United States.
Population
Mooney (1928) estimates the Hidatsa and Amahami together as
numbering 2,500 in 1780. Lewis and Clark give 600 warriors, or about 2,100
people. In 1905 they totaled 471, and the census of 1910 gives 547, a
figure repeated by the United States Indian Office in 1923. In 1930, 528
were returned and in 1937, 731.M
Connection in which they have become noted
The Hidatsa appear most prominently, along with the Mandan,
in connection with the ascent of the Missouri by Lewis and Clark and later
expeditions into the same region. The name of Minatare, Scotts Bluff County,
Nebr., probably refers to this tribe.
Additional Resources
Notes About the Book:
Source: The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton, 1953, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Bulletin 145, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
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