Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 



to are the Gros Ventres of the Village who have long 

 been associated at or near Fort Berthold, N. D., with 

 the Mandan and Arikara. These are a section of the 

 Crow tribe, but the separation took place long ago. 

 They are now very few in number. A census taken 

 in 1910 gives only 466. 



In their later ways of life they closely resembled 

 the Mandan and Arikara, living in earth lodges and 

 depending for support largely on agriculture. At 

 present their numbers are about stationary. 



8. Bullboat. The Century Dictionary defines a 

 bullboat as a shallow crate, covered with the hide of 

 a bull elk certainly a very bad definition. The bull- 

 boats used on the upper Missouri up to the time of 

 the disappearance of the buffalo there were deep bowl- 

 shaped craft, covered, as Colonel Pickett remarks, 

 with buffalo hide stretched over a frame of willow 

 twigs. The bullboat was not used for traveling, but 

 for transporting articles one might say freight if 

 this term could be used about the possessions of In- 

 dians across the Missouri River. The woman who 

 paddled it plunged the paddle into the water as far 

 as possible ahead of the boat, and drew the paddle 

 toward herself. Progress was slow, but the women 

 became skillful in managing these craft, and they 

 were extremely useful to the Village Fort Berthold 

 Indians. 



9. Woodyards. In the old days of steamboat travel 

 on the Upper Missouri, fuel for the engines was ob- 

 tained at woodyards, so-called. These woodyards 



251 



