MCOEE] MANDAN AND HIDATSA HISTORY 197 



migrated up the Missouri to a poiut 1,430 miles above its mouth (as 

 subsequently deteriiiiued by Lewis and Clark) ; the seven villages were 

 soon reduced to five, and these people also ascended the river and 

 formed two villages iu the Arikara country, near the Mandau o'f the 

 eastern side, where they remained until about 176G, when they also 

 consolidated. Thus the once powerful and populous tribe was reduced 

 to tfWo villages which, in 1804, were found by Lewis and Clark on 

 opposite banks of the Missouri, about 4 miles below Knife river. Here 

 for a time the tril)e waxed and promised to regain the early prestige, 

 reaching a ijopulation of 1,C00 in lSo7 ; but in that year they were again 

 attacked by smallpox and almost annihilated, the survivors numbering 

 only 31 according to one account, or 125 to 145 according to others. 

 After this visitation they united in one village. When the Hidatsa 

 removed from Knife river in 1845, some of the Mandau accompanied 

 them, and others followed at intervals as late as 1858, when only a few 

 still remained at their old home. In 1872 a reservation was set apart 

 for the Hidatsa and Arikara and the survivors of the Mandau on Mis- 

 souri and Yellowstone rivers in Dakota and Montana, but iu ISSG the 

 reservation was reduced. According to the census returns, the Mandau 

 numbered 252 in 1890. 



HIDATSA 



There has been much confusion concerning the definition and desig- 

 nation of the Hidatsa Indians. They were formerly known as Minitari 

 or Gros Ventres of the Missouri, iu distinction from the Gros Ventres 

 of the plains, who belong to another stock. The origin of the term 

 Gros Ventres is somewhat obscure, and various observers have pointed 

 out its inapplicability, especially to the well-formed Hidatsa tribesmen. 

 According to Dorsey, the French jiioueers probably translated a native 

 term referring to a traditi(Uial bufi'alo paunch, which occupies a promi- 

 nent place in the Hidatsa mythology and which, in early times, led to 

 a dispute and the separation of the Crow from the main group some 

 time iu the eighteenth century. 



The earlier legends of the Hidatsa are vague, but there is a definite 

 tradition of a migration northward, about 1705, from the neighborhood 

 of Heart river, where they were associated with the Mandau, to Knife 

 river. At least as early as 1790, according to Matthews, there were 

 three villages belonging to this tribe on Knife river — one at the mouth, 

 another half a mile above, and the third and largest 3 miles from the 

 mouth. Here the people were found by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and 

 here they remained until 1837, when the scourge of smallpox fell and 

 many of the peojde perished, the survivors uniting in a single village. 

 About 1845 the Hidatsa and a part of the Mandau again migrated up 

 the Missouri, and established a village 30 miles by land and 60 miles 

 by water above their old home, within what is now Fort Berthold res- 

 ervation. Their population has apparently varied greatly, partly by 



