429 ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
miles below where they now live. The Assiniboins and Sioux forced them to a spot five 
miles higher, where the greatest part of them were put to death, and the rest emigrated 
to their present situation, in order to obtain an asylum near the Minnitarees. ‘They are 
called by the French, Soulier Noir, or Shoe Indians; by the Mandans, Wattasoons, and 
their whole force is about fifty men. 
“On the south side of the same, Knife River, half a mile above the Mahaha, and in 
the same open plain with it, is a village of Minnitarees surnamed Metaharta, who are 
about one hundred and fifty men in number. On the opposite side of Knife River, and 
one and a half miles above this village, is a second village of Minnitarees, who may be 
considered as the proper Minnitaree nation. It is situated in a beautiful, low plain, and 
contains four hundred and fifty warriors. The accounts which we received of the Minni- 
tarees were contradictory. ‘The Mandans say that this people came out of the water to 
the east and settled near them in their former establishment, in nine villages; that they 
were very numerous, and fixed themselves in one village on the southern side of the Mis- 
souri. A quarrel about a buffalo divided the nation, of which two bands went into the 
plains, and were known by the name of Crow and Paunch Indians, and the rest moved 
to their present establishment. ‘The Minnitarees proper assert, on the contrary, that they 
grew where they now live, and will never emigrate from the spot, the Great Spirit having 
declared that if they moved they would all die. They also say that the Minnitarees Me- 
taharta, that is, Minnitarees of the Willows, whose language, with very little variation, is 
their own, came many years ago from the plains, and settled near them; and perhaps the 
two traditions may be reconciled by the natural presumption that these Minnitarees were 
the tribe known to the Mandans below, and that they ascended the river for the purpose 
of rejoining the Minnitarees proper. ‘These Minnitarees are part of the great nation called 
Fall Indians, who occupy the intermediate country between the Missouri and the Saskat- 
chewan, and who are known by the name of Minnitarees of the Missouri, and Minnitarees 
of Fort de Prairie, that is, residing near, or rather frequenting, the establishment in the 
prairie on the Saskatchewan. These Minnitarees, indeed, told us that they had relations 
on the Saskatchewan whom they had never known till they met them in war, and having 
engaged in the night, were astonished at discovering that they were fighting with men 
who spoke their own language. The name of Gros Ventres, or Big-bellies, is given to 
these Minnitarees, as well as to all the Fall Indians. ‘The inhabitants of these five vil- 
lages, all of which are within the distance of six miles, live in harmony with each other. 
The Ahnahaways understand in part the language of the Minnitarees ; the dialect of the 
Mandans differs widely from both; but their long residence together has insensibly 
blended their manners, and occasioned some approximation in language, particularly as to 
objects of daily occurrence and obvious to the senses.” 
