The Gros Ventre of Montana

Tribe: The Gros Ventre (pronounced "grow-vah," with barely a hint of a "n" after the "ah")

Meaning of Name: "Gros Ventre" means "Big Belly" in French. This was theoretically based on a misinterpretation of a Native American Sign Language hand-gesture that actually meant "Waterfall," which makes sense, because the Gros Ventres were from the Great Lakes region where there are a lot of waterfalls. The Arapaho called them the "Hitunena," meaning "Beggars," and the Piegan Blackfoot called them the "Atsina," meaning, "Gut People," meaning people with big guts, not people who gut people.

The Gros Ventres, on the other hand, call themselves the "A'a ni nin," or "A'ani" for short. This  means "White Clay People" probably because they originally lived near white clay deposits in the Great Lakes region, and white clay is used for making pottery.  Nowadays, pottery is made by members of the Kickapoo and Potawatomi tribes, who are also Algonquin-speaking tribes from the Illinois/Great Lakes areas. Settled agrarian people tend to make pottery in which they can store their surplus crops. If the "White Clay People" were particularly successful farmers and if they had a surplus of corn that was stored in white clay pots, then their name "Gros Ventres" or "Big Bellies" may have had, at one time, an element of truth to it, because an excess of carbohydrates tends to pack on the weight.

Location: The Gros Ventres are believed to have lived and planted corn in the Great Lakes region in 1000 BC, along with the ancestors of the Arapaho and the Cheyenne, as one big happy ancestral tribe. Then, between 1650 and the early 1700's, the ancestral tribe was forced out west by the Ojibwe (Chippewa) tribe, and then they split into the Gros Ventres, the Arapaho and the Cheyenne. They all migrated west to Montana and then the Arapaho went south to Wyoming and Colorado. The Gros Ventres still live in Montana on a reservation with their old enemies, the Assiniboine.

Original Language: Algonquin.

Tribal Affiliations: The Arapaho and the Cheyenne. Also, periodically, the Blackfoot, the Flathead, the Nez Perce, the Koontenai, the Assiniboine and the Crow.

Traditional Enemies: the Assiniboine, the Blackfoot, the Cree, and the Sioux.

Traditional Style of Housing: Teepees, which were probably owned by the men.

Traditional Attire: The Gros Ventres were dressed pretty much the same as other People of the Plains, in buckskin leggings and breechcloths for the men and split skirts for the women, who would sometimes wear long dresses instead. They otherwise adopted the style of the Sioux, with this one exception: Gros Ventre women washed the tribal clothes in the limestone-infused water of the Mission Canyon and Little Rockies streams, and the limestone-infused water turned the buckskin white.

Traditional Foods: When they lived in the Great Lakes region, they had lived in settled villages and grew their own corn, beans and squash. But then they were forced out by the Chippewa into a more nomadic life, so their diet changed to mostly bison, black bears, elk, moose, and other game that could be found in the upper regions of the Plains.  Since the Gros Ventre were now nomadic, they probably had to trade animal fur and hides for beans, corn, squash, flour and sugar. However, the women would also gather produce that grew wild in the area: wild onions, garlic chives, parsnips, wild carrots, Indian potatoes, choke cherries, buffalo berries, juneberries, huckleberries, wild grapes, cranberries, strawberries, gooseberries, elderberries, raspberries, currants, prickly pear, flax seed, sunflower seeds, wild lettuces, wild mustard, tarragon, bergamot, biscuit-root, hyacinth, licorice, salsify, horehound, mint and yampah, which is a member of the parsley family, the roots and seeds of which are edible. They also made and ate pemmican out of dried meat, dried berries, cherries or raisins, sunflower seeds and bison or bear fat, and fry bread or possibly biscuits and gravy.

Position of Women: Although most agrarian societies are matrilineal and matrilocal, once the Gros Ventres were forced to leave their farmlands, they probably switched to a very male-dominant society, which is common among hunting and warring groups. Gros Ventres people could not marry someone from the same society (see below under "Interesting Tidbits").  The wives moved into their husbands' families tribe and home, unless her family was richer, and all decisions were made by the men. Rich men could afford to marry many wives, who would then be able to process even more buffalo skins, which could be sold, which would increase his wealth. Lineage was reckoned through the male line. Mothers-in-laws and sons-in-law could not look at, converse, or be in the same tent together, presumably in order to keep the peace. Mothers and their daughters were responsible for domestic chores, child-rearing, gathering food and food production, animal skin production, and until the 1800's, they made pottery.  Women could not join the societies or fraternities of the Gros Ventre, or lead ceremonies or preside over dances. However, there were a few notable Two-Spirit women who had been born Gros Ventre, and who were well-respected chiefs and warriors, though not necessarily of the Gros Ventre tribe.

Gros Ventre Courtship: Girls were betrothed to older men as soon as they hit puberty, and given the patriarchal aspect of tribal life, probably didn't have much say about it. The good news is that the actual marriage did not come about until the girl was twenty.

Interesting Tidbits: If I understand this custom correctly, the firstborn child of each Gros Ventre married couple was, at one time, given over to the grandparents to raise, probably soon after weaning and before the next child was born. So, if a couple had ten children, then when those children got married, they each handed over their firstborn children to their parents, which provided the grandparents with a nearly endless stream of grandchildren, and cousins were raised like brothers and sisters. The grandparents also got the naming-rights. The parents kept the second-born and so forth to raise on their own. This did tend to reduce the burden on the mother, at least temporarily, since her mother-in-law would be raising her firstborn grandchild, who would learn the traditional ways....

The Gros Ventres had, and may still have, two societies, twelve bands, and six age-graded fraternities. The two societies were the Star Society and the Wolf Society, and boys were initiated into one or the other when they were young teenagers. This facilitated male bonding....

The twelve bands (translated) were as follows: The Coffees, the Plenty Bad, the Greys, the Fast Travelers, the Water Horses Once a Day, the Upper Quarters, the Frozen, the Buffalo Overloaded, the Tendons, the Bloods, the Night Hawks and the Tendouas Assiniboine. When the Gros Ventres gathered together, they pitched their tents in a circle with the opening facing east, and each band occupied the same position in the circle that they had during previous gatherings. The Upper Quarters may have been the teepee of the Chief, who, since his teepee was positioned across from the entrance, was in the best position to see who was coming into the tribal area....

These six fraternities were as follows: the Fly Lodge, the Crazy Lodge, the Kit-Fox Lodge, the Dog Lodge, the Drum Lodge and the Old Man's Lodge. The young Gros Ventre boys would, presumably, enter the Fly Lodge and play and practice hunting, sports and games with other young boys before they would, at the appropriate time, enter the hormone-driven adolescent-filled Crazy Lodge.  After this, they would enter the Kit-Fox Lodge at about the same time that they were up for dancing, hunting, courting and raiding, and then the Dog Lodge when they was married and settled but still able to dance.  After that, the middle-aged men would enter the Drum Lodge, where they would play the drums while the younger and more energetic men danced, and then they would enter the Old Man's Lodge where they sit around the fire, tell each other stories and offer to others their sage advice.... 

The Gros Ventres also had two sacred pipes, the Flat Pipe and the Feathered Pipe. The Flat Pipe was used for obtaining riches, horses, prosperity and luck in battle, and the Feathered Pipe was used for obtaining health, Oneness with God, and good weather.... And finally, more Gros Ventre people died of Smallpox than died in the intertribal wars or the wars with the white men.

Traditional Religion: Sun Dance, traditional tribal religion, Roman Catholicism.

Slavery and the Gros Ventre: The Gros Ventre, who counted coup, took slaves in raids on other tribes, and said slave belonged to the entire tribe, and not to the person who kidnapped him. Some slaves were also adopted into the tribe, perhaps to take the place of a tribesman who had died. On the whole, they seemed to have been good to their slaves which makes good politics in the likely event that the tribe went up against the same enemy another time. On the other hand, they may have traded slaves for goods and credit.

Current Population: There are almost 3700 registered Gros Ventres.

Current Sources of Trial Revenue: Land leases to mining, gas and oil companies, and a few stores.

Famous Gros Ventres: None that I have heard of.