Native American Nations / Siouan Peoples / The Hidatsas

The Hidatsas

By Kristopher K. Townsend

A Minatarre Chief

Karl Bodmer (1809–1893)

A young warrior

Courtesy U.S. Library of Congress

Prior to departing from winter camp at Wood River, the Hidatsa were relatively well-understood by Lewis and Clark, but not known by that name. One of their St. Louis informants, Jean Baptiste Truteau, called them by their French name Gros Ventre which literally translates as Big Belly. They didn’t have bigger bellies than any other Native Americans, but that meaning was translated by French traders from a Plains Sign Language gesture for the tribe where the hand moves in the shape of an extended stomach.[1]Frank Henderson Stewart, Handbook of North American Indians: Plains Vol. 13, Raymond J. DeMallie, Ed. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute, 2001), 346.

History

According to Crow and Hidatsa tradition, the two peoples split from a single group. Both are Siouan, and evidence supports their common past. Clark was told of split and wrote:

he [Sheheke] Said that the Menitarras [Hidatsa] Came out of the water to the East and Came to this Country and built a village near the mandans from whome they got Corn beens &c. they were very noumerous and resided in one village a little above this place on the opposit Side. they quarreled about a buffalow, and two bands left the village and went into the plains, (those two bands are now known bye the title Pounch, and Crow Indians.
—William Clark, 18 August 1806

In 1781, the Hidatsa population was reduced to about 2000 after a smallpox epidemic. At this same time, plains village tradition tribes became more vulnerable to nomadic tribes such as the Sioux. The Hidatsa settled in three villages just north of two Mandan villages in a complex now called the Knife River Villages. There, they practiced horticulture and hunting in the manner of the Plains Village tradition. They appeared to be more war-like than their Mandan allies and were likely the people who traveled to the Three Forks of the Missouri where they encountered the Lemhi Shoshones and eventually captured Sacagawea, a valued member of the expedition.

Hidatsa Village Traders

The Hidatsa story of Sakakawea differs significantly than that of the Lemhi Shoshone and academic historians. The spelling Sakakawea reflects a Hidatsa meaning and birthname. The spelling Sacajawea reflects the Lemhi Shoshone meaning and interpretation of her life and Sacagawea the spelling and story commonly accepted by academic historians.[2]Sacagawea’s name and life story is often debated. Being a popular argument, the controversy is outlined at Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea#Spelling_of_name. For the Hidatsa … Continue reading

What we do know about Sacagawea is that she and her husband—independent trader Toussaint Charbonneau—were living among the Awatixa division of the Hidatsa at Metaharta Village. For decades prior to the expedition, fur traders had commerce with the Hidatsa and when Lewis and Clark arrived, the Knife River Villages were teeming with traders from the Hudson’s Bay and North West companies. Two traders from the latter company, François-Antoine Larocque and Charles McKenzie, left a significant written record of their interactions with the expedition during the 1804–05 winter at Fort Mandan.[3]The writings of Larocque and McKenzie provide alternate perspectives on the expedition’s winter stay at Fort Mandan. Where appropriate, excerpts are included in this website’s Day by Day … Continue reading

A Lasting Peace?

In their role as United States diplomatic envoys, the captains prompted a peace between the Arikaras, Hidatsas, and Mandans. That was only temporary, as the death of Too Né (Eagle Feather) on his Washington City trip, would turn his people against the United States and their Mandan-Hidatsa allies. Just a year after the expedition, the Arikara hampered efforts to return Mandan Sheheke’s diplomatic envoy to his home village. Sheheke eventually returned, but some Hidatsa would kill him in 1812.

In the next decade, weakened by skirmishes with traders and the U.S. Army, the Arikara would seek sanctuary with the Hidatsas and Mandans. Ironically, the peace between the three tribes sought by the captains, had finally come to pass. With the establishment of the Fort Berthold Reservation in 1870, the Knife River villages no longer belonged to the Three Affiliated Tribes.[4]Baker, 329–331, 346-47; William Bright, A Glossary of Native American Toponyms and Ethnonyms from the Lewis and Clark Journals, University of Colorado, accessed on 28 April 2020, … Continue reading

Synonymy

The synonymy of the Hidatsa people is rich, complex, and often confusing. The simplified form below is meant to help the reader better understand and search the literature.[5]For more academic synonymies see (Douglas R. Parks, Handbook of North American Indians: Plains, 344 and Frederick Webb Hodge, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Vol. 1 (Washington: … Continue reading

Both the Astinas and Hidatsas are called Big Bellies, Gros Ventre and Minnetares. To avoid confusion, 19th-century writes adopted the terms “Gros Ventres of the Prairie” (Atsina) and “Gros Ventres of the Missouri” (Hidatsa). In the context of this synonymy, all the terms below refer to the Hidatsas.

Alternate spellings by the expedition journalists are enclosed in [brackets].

Names for the Hidatsa
Minitaree [Muneturs, Minitaries, Minetares, Me-ne-tar-e, Menitarras]
Gros Ventre [Grovanter, Gross Vaunter, Grosvantres, Grovantrs, Grosvauinties, Grousevauntaus]
Big Bellies [Big Belleys]
Watersoon [Water Soix, Water Souix, Weta Soaux, We ter Soon]
Three Divisions and Villages
At the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, there were three divisions each roughly associated with their own villages:
Awaxawi of Mahawha Village
[Arwerharmays, Ah-wâh-hâ-way]
The Awaxawi were also known as Shoe or Mocassin or in French, Soulier, les souliers, and Gens des Soulier [Shoes Men].
Mahawha is also known as the Amahami site [Arwarharmay, Arwerhrmay, Mahaha, Mahawha, Mar-har-ha, Mah-har-ha, Little Menetarre Village].
The journalists also called this the Lower Village and sometimes enumerated it simply as number 3, or third village.
Awatixa of Metaharta Village
This village also included some Hidatsa proper and is also known as the Sakakawea site and Little or Petite village. The journalists sometimes called it Middle Village and enumerated it as number 4.
Hidatsa proper of Menetarra Village
This village, the northernmost, was also called Big Hidatsa, Grand Village, Upper Village, and sometimes enumerated as number 5.
 

Selected Pages and Encounters

Notes

Notes
↑1 Frank Henderson Stewart, Handbook of North American Indians: Plains Vol. 13, Raymond J. DeMallie, Ed. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute, 2001), 346.
↑2 Sacagawea’s name and life story is often debated. Being a popular argument, the controversy is outlined at Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea#Spelling_of_name. For the Hidatsa version, see also Gerard A. Baker in Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., Ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 2006), 123–136.
↑3 The writings of Larocque and McKenzie provide alternate perspectives on the expedition’s winter stay at Fort Mandan. Where appropriate, excerpts are included in this website’s Day by Day pages. See also W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen, Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738–1818 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), in passim. See also Larocque at Fort Mandan.
↑4 Baker, 329–331, 346-47; William Bright, A Glossary of Native American Toponyms and Ethnonyms from the Lewis and Clark Journals, University of Colorado, accessed on 28 April 2020, https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.sup.bright.01; Moulton, Journals, 3:206n8.
↑5 For more academic synonymies see (Douglas R. Parks, Handbook of North American Indians: Plains, 344 and Frederick Webb Hodge, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Vol. 1 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Government Printing Office, 1912), 47, 547–549.

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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).