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Gros Ventre

 
Dictionary: Gros Ventre   (grō' vänt') pronunciation
n., pl., Gros Ventre, or Gros Ventres (vänt').
  1. See Atsina.
  2. See Hidatsa.

[French, big belly : gros, big + ventre, belly (from an indigenous sign-language gesture designating this people that suggested a big belly).]


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North American Indian group living in north-central Montana, U.S. Known to the Blackfoot as Atsina, they call themselves Ah-ah-nee-nin, meaning "White Clay People." The Gros Ventres are an offshoot of the Algonquian-speaking Arapaho tribe, from which they may have separated as early as 1700; they were living in what is now northern Montana and adjacent regions of Canada in late historic times and were culturally similar to other Plains Indians. Together with the Assiniboin, they were settled on Fort Belknap Reservation, Mont. Some 2,900 people claimed sole Gros Ventres descent in the 2000 U.S. census. The name Gros Ventres has also been applied to the Hidatsa.

For more information on Gros Ventres, visit Britannica.com.

WordNet: Gros Ventre
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: a member of the Sioux people formerly inhabiting an area along the Missouri river in western North Dakota
  Synonym: Hidatsa

Meaning #2: a Siouan language spoken by the Hidatsa people
  Synonym: Hidatsa


Wikipedia: Gros Ventres
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Gros Ventres
A Gros Ventre named Assiniboin Boy.
Photo by Edward S. Curtis.
Total population
3,682
(2000 census)
Regions with significant populations
United States (Montana)
Languages

English, Atsina

Religion

Christianity, other

Related ethnic groups

Arapaho, Cheyenne

The Gros Ventres (from French: big belly) are a Native American tribe located in northcentral Montana, also known as the Atsina, which is considered an inaccurate and derogatory name. There are currently 3,682 members and they share Fort Belknap Indian Reservation with the Assiniboine, their historical enemies. Gros Ventre is a name that was given to the people by the French who misinterpreted their sign language. Instead, the Gros Ventre people refer to themselves as A'ani or A'aninin, which means "white clay people". The Arapaho and the A'aninin were a single large tribe that lived along the Red River valley in northern Minnesota and Canada. In the early 1700s the large tribe split into two; forming the A'aninin and the Arapaho. The Arapaho went south and the A'aninin stayed in the Saskatchewan region.

Atsina is thought to be a Blackfoot word for "gut people", the other Arapaho who considered them inferior called them Hitúnĕna, meaning "beggars".[1] Other interpretations have yielded the terms "hunger", "waterfall", and "big bellies".

At the time of first contact with Europeans in 1754, the Gros Ventre ranged the Canadian Prairies around the Saskatchewan River Forks. Long time enemies of the Cree and Assiniboine they were forced to withdraw from what is now Canada during the first half of the nineteenth century due to the acquisition of guns by the Cree from the Hudson's Bay Company. In response the Gros Ventre had, in about 1793, attacked and burnt the Hudson's Bay Company post at South Branch House on the South Saskatchewan River near present day St. Louis, Saskatchewan. The tribe moved south to the Milk River and were associated with the Blackfoot. The Gros Ventre adopted the Plains culture with its horses and guns and followed the bison for food. Because they refused to receive their treaty payments at Fort Peck along with their enemies, the Sioux, the U.S. government established Fort Belknap in 1878, near present Chinook, Montana. In 1888, the Blackfoot, Assiniboine and Gros Ventre ceded much of their lands and the much smaller Fort Belknap Reservation was established which the Gros Ventre share with the Assiniboine. By 1904 there were only 535 tribe members. The current reservation government has a council which includes four officers as well as four members from each tribe.

See also

External links


 
 
Learn More
Gros Ventre River
Atsina (Native American people)
Hidatsa (Native American people)

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gros Ventres" Read more