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57-799: After the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty (1851) and subsequent taking of land, the Nation's land base is currently approximately 1 million acres located in Fort Berthold Reservation in northwestern North Dakota . The Tribe reported a total enrollment of 16,986 enrolled members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation as of April 2022. Nearly 5,600 live on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation; others live and work elsewhere. The Mandan and Hidatsa tribes formed an alliance after

114-472: A Native American tribe currently part of the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota . At the height of their historic culture, the Mandan were prosperous and peaceful farmers and traders, noted for their excellent maize cultivation and crafting of Knife River flint . They built earth lodges , and made villages of considerable technical skill, and cultivated many varieties of maize. They were

171-570: A council with the tribes to prevent a conflict. The United States government undertook negotiations with the Plains Tribes living between the Arkansas and Missouri rivers to ensure protected right-of-way for the migrants. Congress had appropriated one hundred thousand dollars to the assembly, endorsed by Luke Lea (the Commissioner of Indian Affairs ). The treaty was negotiated and signed at

228-513: A large group of Arikara men accompanied Custer and the 7th Cavalry on the Little Big Horn Expedition . Arikara scouts were in the lead when US Army forces attacked the widespread encampment of thousands of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors and families. Several scouts drove off Lakota horses, as they had been ordered, and others fought alongside the troopers. Three Arikara men were killed: Little Brave, Bobtail Bull, and Bloody Knife . During

285-508: A mass immigration of miners and settlers into Colorado occurred. White settlers took over the treaty's established territories in order to mine them, "against the protests of the Indians." These settlers established towns, farms, and improved roadways. Before 1861, the Cheyenne and Arapaho "had been driven from the mountain regions down upon the waters of the Arkansas ." Such immigrants competed with

342-661: A more sedentary people than other, more nomadic tribes of the Great Plains . Lewis and Clark stayed with the Mandan when they passed through the Upper Missouri region on their expedition to the Northwest, including five months in the winter of 1804–1805. Sakakawea , a Hidatsa who has subsequently been claimed by both the Shoshone and Hidatsa , joined the expedition as an interpreter and native guide. Because of her role in salvaging

399-607: A variety of transliterations, including A'aninin , Aaniiih , Haaninin , Aainen , Aa'ninena , and Aaninena . The French used the term Gros Ventre , which was mistakenly interpreted from sign language . They were once known as the "Gros Ventres of the Prairies", as the Hidatsa people were similarly called the "Gros Ventres of the Missouri". After their split from the Gros Ventres,

456-716: A whole. Their language is related to that of the Crow nation. They have been considered a parent tribe to the modern Crow in Montana . The Hidatsa have sometimes been confused with the Gros Ventre , another tribe which was historically in Montana. In 1936, the Bureau of Indian Affairs compiled the Tribe's Base Roll listing all Hidatsa as "G.V.", for Gros Ventre. Today about 30 full-blood Hidatsa are members of

513-462: Is the community of Twin Buttes, North Dakota . The Hidatsa , called Moennitarri by their allies the Mandan, are a Siouan -speaking people. The Hidatsa name for themselves ( autonym ) is Nuxbaaga ("Original People"). The name Hidatsa said to mean "willows," was that of one band's village, after a prominent landscape feature. When the villages consolidated, the tribe used that name for their people as

570-702: The A'aninin , Atsina , or White Clay , are a historically Algonquian -speaking Native American tribe located in northcentral Montana . Today, the Gros Ventre people are enrolled in the Fort Belknap Indian Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana , a federally recognized tribe with 7,000 members, also including the Assiniboine people . The name used by the Gros Ventre, ʔɔʔɔɔ̋ɔ́niinénnɔh means "White Clay People". It has

627-602: The Fort Belknap Agency was re-established, and the Gros Ventres, and remaining Assiniboines were again allowed to receive supplies at Fort Belknap. White Eagle, "the last major Chief of the Gros Ventre people", died "at the mouth of the Judith River " on February 9, 1881. In 1884, gold was discovered in the Little Rocky Mountains . Pressure from miners and mining companies forced the tribes to cede sections of

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684-594: The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation . By 1904, there were only 535 Gros Ventre tribe members remaining. The tribe has since revived, with a substantial increase in population. In March 2012, 63 American bison from Yellowstone National Park were transferred to prairie on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, to be released to a 2,100-acre game preserve 25 miles north of Poplar . There are numerous other bison herds outside Yellowstone, but

741-539: The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 , the tribes formed a tribal government which they called the Three Affiliated Tribes, a sovereign tribal nation. The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation consists of 988,000 acres (400,000 ha), of which 457,837 acres (185,280 ha) are owned by Native Americans, either as individual allotments or communally by the tribe. In response to severe flooding on

798-581: The Red River Valley in present-day Minnesota and North Dakota. In Ojibwa oral history they are known as the "men of the olden time" that occupied the lands surrounding the head waters of the Mississippi River . They were closely associated with the ancestors of the Cheyenne . They spoke the now nearly extinct Gros Ventre language (Atsina) , a closely related Plains Algonquian language , much like

855-850: The Washington Territory , signed a treaty (11  Stat.   657 ) to make peace between the United States and the Blackfoot, Flathead and Nez Perce tribes. The Gros Ventres signed the treaty as part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, whose territory near the Three Fork area became a common hunting ground for the combined peoples. A common hunting ground north of the Missouri River on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation included

912-570: The smallpox epidemic of 1837–1838 decimated the Mandan, leaving approximately 125 survivors. The Mandan subsequently banded together with the Hidatsa to survive. In 1845 the Mandan and Hidatsa jointly established a new town, Like-a-Fishhook Village . In 1862, the Arikara settled with the Mandan and Hidatsa at Like-a-Fishhook to escape war with the Lakota , forming a confederacy that would later be known as

969-654: The Affiliated Three Tribes. Most Hidatsa people have ancestry also of the Mandan and Arikara tribes. The Arikara call themselves Sahnish . The Arikara were forced into Mandan territory by conflict with the Lakota (Sioux), between the Arikara War and the European-American settlement in the 1870s. The Arikara lived for many years near the Fort Clark trading post, also called Knife River. In 1862 they joined

1026-838: The Arapaho live in a common reservation in what is now Oklahoma, also far from their 1851 treaty land. The Assiniboine in the United States has since 1888 lived in Fort Peck Reservation and in Fort Belknap Reservation , both placed north of the Missouri in what is now Montana. The treaty territory of the Assiniboine south of the Missouri was just a small portion of the wide range used by these northern plains Indians. Gros Ventres The Gros Ventre ( US : / ˈ ɡ r oʊ v ɒ n t / GROH -vont , French: [ɡʁo vɑ̃tʁ] ; meaning "big belly"), also known as

1083-611: The Arapaho, and is grouped as an Arapahoan language (Arapaho-Atsina) . There is evidence that, together with bands of Northern Arapaho , a southern tribal group, the Staetan , spoke the Besawunena dialect, which had speakers among the Northern Arapaho as recently as the late 1920s. In the early 18th century, the combined tribe came under pressure from the Ojibwe , and started a migration to

1140-501: The Arapaho, who considered the Gros Ventres inferior, called them Hitúnĕna , meaning "beggars." Other interpretations of the term have been "hunger," "waterfall," and "big bellies." The Gros Ventres are believed to have lived in the western Great Lakes region 3,000 years ago, where they lived an agrarian lifestyle, cultivating maize . With the ancestors of the Arapaho , they formed a single Algonquian -speaking people who lived along

1197-736: The Arapaho. "... the Sioux were given rights to the Black Hills and other country that the Northern Cheyennes claimed. Their home country was the Black Hills," declared a Cheyenne historian in 1967. Arapaho chief Black Coal complained in 1875: "I have never got anything yet for my land [the Black Hills]. It is part mine, and part the Sioux... In the first place, they came from the Missouri River and reached this place, and now they have got up this far, and they claim all this land." The Cheyenne and Arapaho,

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1254-460: The Assiniboine and Sioux. In 1861, the Gros Ventres left the Blackfoot Confederacy. Allying with the Crow , the Gros Ventres fought the Blackfoot but in 1867, they were defeated. In 1868, the United States government established a trading post called Fort Browning near the mouth of Peoples Creek on the Milk River . This trading post was built for the Gros Ventres and Assiniboines, but because it

1311-767: The Cree and Assiniboine in what is now Saskatchewan . In 1832, the Gros Ventre made contact with the German explorer and naturalist, Prince Maximilian . Along with the naturalist painter Karl Bodmer , the Europeans painted portraits and recorded their meeting with the Gros Ventre, near the Missouri River in Montana. The Gros Ventres joined the Blackfoot Confederacy , after which they moved to north-central Montana and southern Canada. In 1855, Isaac Stevens , Territorial Governor of

1368-651: The Hidatsa and Mandan at Like-a-Fishhook Village, near the Fort Berthold trading post. For work, the Arikara men scouted for the U. S. Army, stationed at nearby Fort Stevenson . In 1874, the Arikara scouts guided Custer on the Black Hills Expedition, during which his party discovered gold. This resulted in a rush of miners to the area, causing conflict with the Lakota, who considered the Black Hills to be sacred. In 1876,

1425-709: The Mandan, Hidatsa, or Arikara ancestry (the equivalent of one full-blooded great-grandparent) to become an enrolled member of the MHA Nation and 1/4th degree blood of the Mandan, Hidatsa, or Arikara ancestry to run for the Tribal Business Council. The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation sits atop the Bakken Formation , the second most-productive geographic area for shale oil production in the United States. The nation receives roughly 90 percent of its revenue from royalties and taxes on oil and gas development. In 2023,

1482-515: The Northern Cheyennes was designated in 1884. It is located entirely within the boundaries of the 1851 Crow territory, after the Indians in question had "earned the right to stay in the north" after the Fort Robinson outbreak. The Arapahoe (Northern Arapaho) settled down on the reservation of their past enemies, the Shoshone, in what is now Wind River Reservation , Wyoming. The Southern Cheyenne and

1539-718: The Powder River to the Yellowstone River was their country [the Crows'], until 1859, when they were driven from it by the Sioux." In 1868, after a series of battles with the United States army in the contested area, the Lakotas finally succeeded in turning a part of the Crow Indian territory of 1851 into unceded Indian territory of their own. Later again, huge parts of the different Indian territories would in one way or another be added to

1596-591: The Reservation and 1/3rd live on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation ;. Membership (citizenship) is derived from the 1936 Indian Census roll of the Three Affiliated Tribes. On 2 November 2010 the tribal membership passed amendments specifying " blood quantum ," or minimum amounts of tribal ancestry to qualify individuals for membership and for candidates for public office. Effective 16 December 2010 individuals must possess at least 1/8th degree blood of

1653-407: The Three Affiliated Tribes. The Nation now commonly refers to itself as the "Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation" in most situations although "The Three Affiliated Tribes" is used as well. Under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 , the tribes formed a tribal government which they called the Three Affiliated Tribes, a sovereign tribal nation. The Mandan , who refer to themselves as Nueta, are

1710-772: The United States. The situation escalated in 1854 with the Grattan affair , when a detachment of U.S. soldiers illegally entered a Sioux encampment to arrest those accused of stealing a cow, and in the process sparked a battle in which Chief Conquering Bear was killed. Though intertribal fighting had existed before the arrival of white settlers, some of the post-treaty intertribal fighting can be attributed to targeted mass killings of bison by white settlers and government agents. The U.S. Army did not enforce treaty regulations and allowed hunters onto Native land to slaughter buffalo, providing protection and sometimes ammunition. One hundred thousand buffalo were killed each year until they were on

1767-541: The Yanktonai Sioux moved into Assiniboine hunting grounds in North Dakota and Montana, where the Assiniboine made peace with them. Before long, the Crows saw their western Powder River area flooded with trespassing Lakotas in search of bison, and "... large scale battles with invading Sioux" took place near what is now the city of Wyola, Montana . The outnumbered Crows were displaced little by little. "The country from

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1824-671: The amount of fifty thousand dollars for fifty years. The treaty also sought to "make an effective and lasting peace" among the eight tribes, who were often at odds with each other. Although many European and European-American migrants to western North America had previously passed through the Great Plains on the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails , the California gold rush beginning in 1848 greatly increased traffic. The next year, both Thomas Fitzpatrick (agent of Upper Platte and Arkansas) and David D. Mitchell (superintendent at Saint Louis) recommended

1881-457: The expedition, she was honored with an image on the U.S. dollar coin . On the return trip, the expedition brought the Mandan chief Sheheke Shote with them back to Washington, DC . Some explorers described the Mandan and their structures as having "European" features. In the 19th century, a few people used such anecdotes to speculate that the Mandan were, in part, descended from lost European settlers who had arrived at North America before 1492,

1938-489: The government for decades to receive compensation for the unjust taking of their land. In 1992, Congress awarded the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation over $ 149.2 million and over 156,000 acres (63,000 ha) of land in just compensation for wrongs imposed on the tribal people by the Garrison Dam. There are 17,228 enrolled members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation as of 16 June 2023. Approximately 2/3rd reside off

1995-697: The headwaters of the Loup River , a branch of the North Platte River (Lewis and Clark 1806). The Gros Ventre acquired horses in the mid-18th century. The earliest known contact of Gros Ventre with settlers was around 1754, between the north and south forks of the Saskatchewan River . Exposure to smallpox severely reduced their numbers. Around 1793, in response to attacks by well-armed Cree and Assiniboines, large groups of Gros Ventre burned two Hudson's Bay Company trading posts that were providing guns to

2052-436: The herd transferred is one of the very few not cross-bred with cattle . Many celebrated the move, over a century after bison were nearly made extinct by White settlers and the government. The Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes at the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation also received a portion of the herd. The reservation government of Fort Belknap has an elected community council with 4 Gros Ventre members and 4 Assiniboine, for

2109-399: The holdings of the United States. Smaller areas of the initial Indian territories became separate reservations, usually populated with Indians from the tribe, which held the treaty right in 1851. The Crow territory outlined in the treaty was split to provide land to two different reservations. The Crow Reservation was created in the center of the original territory in 1868. The reservation of

2166-543: The land base of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara by approximately 80% to make way for a new railroad. Their land was again reduced a further 60% in 1886 when the Fort Berthold Reservation was established. In all, about 11.4 million acres of tribal lands were taken. Following the creation of the contemporary Fort Berthold Reservation in 1886, the Bureau of Indian Affairs forced tribal members to leave Like-a-Fishhook Village and take up individual allotments. The stated purpose of

2223-470: The lower Missouri River in 1943, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1944 and authorized the creation of the Garrison Dam . In order to construct the dam, the US government needed to purchase 152,000 acres of agricultural land in the Fort Berthold Reservation that would be flooded by the creation of Lake Sakakawea . Threatened by confiscation under eminent domain , the tribes were forced to accept $ 5 million in exchange for their lands. This amount

2280-445: The month. A legal quorum as defined in the constitution of the Three Affiliated Tribes is 5 of the 7 council representatives. Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851) The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17, 1851 between United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Cheyenne , Sioux , Arapaho , Crow , Assiniboine , Mandan , Hidatsa , and Arikara Nations. Also known as Horse Creek Treaty ,

2337-418: The mountains in 1885. Jesuits came to Fort Belknap in 1862 to convert the Gros Ventre people to Roman Catholicism . In 1887, St. Paul's Mission was established at the foot of the Little Rocky Mountains , near Hays . Much of the traditional ceremonies were lost through the course of time following the establishment of the mission. Two sacred pipes, The Feathered Pipe and The Flat Pipe, still remain central to

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2394-427: The mouth of Horse Creek, 30 miles (48 km) downriver from Fort Laramie , because the area around Fort Laramie lacked food for the horses. Many natives have referred to the treaty as the Horse Creek Treaty. Representatives from the Lakota Sioux ( Red Fish , Lone Horn), Cheyenne, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa, Shoshone, Crow ( Big Robber , Sits-on-Edge-of Fortification), and Arapaho took part in

2451-487: The nation bought an idle 31-mile long pipeline (50 km) from Enbridge to help deliver oil from the wells. The pipeline runs from the Plaza/Wabek fields to Enbridge’s terminal in Stanley. The Tribal Business Council consists of six Segment Representatives and a chairman. Each member's term lasts 4 years, and there are no term limits. The Tribal Business Council holds Regular Meetings on the second Thursday of each month, and sub-committees meet at different times throughout

2508-454: The reservation was to enable the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara "to obtain the means necessary to enable them to become wholly self-supporting by the cultivation of the soil and other pursuits of husbandry." Tribal leaders spent three decades petitioning the United States government to receive fair compensation for the lands ceded by the executive orders of 1870 and 1880. The tribe was eventually awarded $ 2.2 million as compensation in 1930. Under

2565-413: The so-called Fall Indians (Canadian or northern group, Hahá-tonwan ) of 260 tipis (2,500 population) traded with the North West Company on the Upper Saskatchewan River and roamed between the Missouri and Bow River , and the so-called Staetan tribe (American or southern group) of 40 tipis (400 population) living in close contact with bands (which would become the later Northern Arapaho ) and roamed

2622-421: The southernmost of the treaty tribes, held an area southward of the North Platte in common (now mainly in Wyoming and Colorado ). The Crow treaty territory (now in Montana and Wyoming) included the area westward from Powder River . Little Bighorn River ran through the center of the Crow domain. The treaty was broken almost immediately after its inception. In 1858, during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush ,

2679-406: The subsequent confusion, when the scouts were cut off from the troopers, they returned to the base camp as they had been directed. After the battle, in which Custer and some 260 other US troops were killed, the search for scapegoats resulted in some critics mistakenly accusing the scouts of having abandoned the soldiers. The United States issued two executive orders in 1870 and 1880 that diminished

2736-431: The traditional spiritual beliefs of the Gros Ventres. In 1888, the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation was established by an act of Congress on May 1, 1888 (Stat., L., XXV, 113). The Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, and Assiniboine tribes ceded a combined 17,500,000 acres of their joint reservation and agreed to live on three smaller reservations. These are now known as the Blackfoot Confederacy , the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and

2793-406: The treaty discussions. The United States Senate ratified the treaty, adding Article 5 which adjusted compensation from fifty to ten years. All tribes, with the exception of the Crow, accepted. Several tribes never received the commodities promised as payments. The Lakota Sioux received exclusive treaty rights to the Black Hills (now in South Dakota), to the consternation of the Cheyenne and

2850-517: The treaty set forth traditional territorial claims of the tribes. The United States acknowledged that all the land covered by the treaty was Indian territory and did not claim any part of it. The boundaries agreed to in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 would be used to settle a number of claims cases in the 20th century. The Native Americans guaranteed safe passage for settlers on the Oregon Trail and allowed roads and forts to be built in their territories, in exchange for promises of an annuity in

2907-412: The tribes for game and water, straining limited resources and causing conflicts. The U.S. government did not enforce the treaty to keep out the immigrants. In 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington 's armies perpetrated the Sand Creek massacre against a peaceful camp of mostly Cheyennes, killing and mutilating the bodies of many men, women, and children. This event led to years of war between the Cheyennes and

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2964-515: The upper Missouri River Valley . During the migration, the large tribe split into the Arapaho and the Gros Ventre, possibly near Devil's Lake. These groups, along with the Cheyenne, were among the last to migrate into Montana, due to pressure from the Ojibwe . After they migrated to Montana, the Arapaho moved southwards to the Wyoming and Colorado area. The Cheyenne who migrated with the Gros Ventre and Arapaho also migrated onwards. The Gros Ventre were reported living in two north–south tribal groups –

3021-475: The verge of extinction, which threatened the tribes' subsistence. These mass killings affected all tribes thus the tribes were forced onto each other's hunting grounds, where fighting broke out. By summer 1862, all three tribes had been forced out of their shared treaty territory. "We, the Arikara, have been driven from our country on the other side of the Missouri River by the Sioux," stated chief White Shield in 1864. The elimination of buffalo also meant that

3078-428: The voyage of Christopher Columbus . One legend associated them with having Welsh ancestry. Historians and anthropologists have debated this history; however, the MHA people and their oral tradition agree that there was historic admixture. This is the legend of Madoc ab Owein , popularized in relation to the Mandan in the 19th century by the painter George Catlin . The current center of Mandan culture and population

3135-472: Was a warehouse and an issue building, where the tribe received their rations and annuity goods. In 1876, the fort was discontinued and the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine people receiving annuities at the post were instructed to go to the agency at Fort Peck and Wolf Point . The Assiniboines readily did so, but the Gros Ventres refused, fearing coming into conflict with the nearby Sioux . They chose to forfeit their annuities rather than move to Fort Peck. In 1878,

3192-420: Was increased to $ 7.5 million in 1949, but it hardly compensated for the loss of 94% of the tribe’s agricultural land. The majority of tribal members were forced to relocate far-flung, unproductive parcels of land. The construction of Garrison Dam almost totally destroyed the traditional way of life for the Three Affiliated Tribes and made them much more dependent on the federal government. The tribe petitioned

3249-400: Was on a favorite hunting ground of the Sioux , it was abandoned in 1871. The government then built Fort Belknap , which was established on the south side of the Milk River, about one mile southwest of the present town site of Harlem, Montana . Fort Belknap was a substation post, with half of the structure being a trading post. A block house stood to the left of the stockade gate. At the right

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