Gros Ventre

North Americahunter-gatherers

Map
expand_more Description

The Gros Ventre are an Algonquian-speaking Native American group closely related to the Arapaho. Originally nomadic hunter-gatherers, subsistence was largely based on the hunting of buffalo (bison) and the gathering of wild food plants. Historically believed to have originated in the Great Lakes region, the Gros Ventre eventually spread to large areas of the Great Plains, but under intense pressure from neighboring tribal groups throughout the eighteenth century, and with the decline of the buffalo herds in the late nineteenth, economic help was sought from the U.S. government. Under the terms of the Fort Belknap agreement of 1888, the Gros Ventre gave up there land claims in the region and were subsequently placed on a reservation in northern Montana (the Fort Belknap Reservation), where they were soon joined by the Assiniboine.

Identifier
Region
  • North America
Subregion
  • Plains and Plateau
Subsistence Type
  • hunter-gatherers
Samples
Countries
  • Canada
  • United States
External Links