Total population | |
---|---|
3,682 (2000 census) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
United States (Montana)[1] | |
Languages | |
English, Gros Ventre | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholicism, Sun Dance,[2] traditional religion[3] | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Arapaho, Cheyenne |
The Gros Ventre (US: /ˈɡroʊvɒnt/ GROH-vont, French: [ɡʁo vɑ̃tʁ]; meaning "big belly"), also known as the A'aninin, Atsina,[5] or White Clay,[6] are a historically Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe located in northcentral Montana. Today, the Gros Ventre people are enrolled in the Fort Belknap Indian Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana, a federally recognized tribe with 7,000 members, also including the Assiniboine people.[7]
clark
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).The Gros Ventre or White Clay people currently occupy the Fort Belknap Reservation in northcentral Montana, north of the Missouri River. Earlier, in the eighteenth century, they seem to have been located primarily farther to the north, around the Saskatchewan River. The name Gros Ventre (French for 'big belly') is obviously an exonym (based on a misunderstanding of the sign language form for 'falling water'), though it is commonly used by the people themselves at Fort Belknap, while the indigenous name is ʔɔʔɔɔ̋ɔ́niinénnɔh meaning 'white clay people'. The term White Clay is commonly used in English today at Fort Belknap, along with Gros Ventre. Another name that has been used in the past for this group of people is Atsina, but this is another exonym (from the Blackfeet), and not used by the Gros Ventre themselves.