Gros Ventre Stories, continued.
George Horse Capture's forward from 'The Seven Visions of Bull Lodge
“We are the A’aninin—the White Clay People of Montana. Many other terms have been used to designate our tribe, such as the Atsina, Mintarrees, Rapid Indians and Fall Indians, but they are wrong. Even the name we are “officially” known by, the Gros Ventres, is inaccurate. From the dawn to the sunset of time, we will always be the People of the White Clay.
Our history is long hard and colorful. Long ago we were one with the Arapaho. In the early 1700’s in North Dakota, the tribe divided, with the Arapaho moving southwest and the White Clay People moving northwest into Canada. There were many contacts with non-Indians over the following years, and a number recorded their experiences—Hendry (1754), Cocking (1772), Umfreville (1784), and Mackenzie (1789), to name a few. We journeyed north past the forks of the Saskatchewan Rivers, then moved west and became part of the feared Blackfeet Confederacy.
In 1793, we burned a fort, the South Branch House, on the south Saskatchewan. A year later, we destroyed a fort on Pine Island, called Manchester House (on the main branch of the Saskatchewan). Heavy pressure from more numerous and better-armed tribes forces us south to the Missouri by the first decade of the nineteenth century. Before moving permanently out of Canada, we destroyed another fort, the Chesterfield at the mouth of the Red Deer River, in 1826. The next few years found us fighting Mexican troops in the Cimarron area and trappers at Pierre’s Hole in Idaho. We may have been the tribe that gave John Colter a run at Three Forks, Montana. Because of our ferocity, isolation and small number (we have never been more than 3,000), we have almost been ignored by historians. But we know our own story, and that is what is important.”
From “The Seven Visions of Bull Lodge”, by George Horse Capture, Sr. pp 11-12
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