Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

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Mountain Crows, and those who settled in the
northern section were called Black Lodges; in a
competitive spirit, the two groups alternated
sponsorship of the celebrations (Fowler, 1979).
Middle-aged men assumed responsibility for organizing
all of these affairs. Religious expression
apparently centered around Catholic rites. Probably
the Catholic rituals filled a void in Gros
Ventre life but did not in themselves draw tribal
members away from native ceremonies. Native
rituals were held infrequently due to discord
about the qualifications of ritual authorities, as
well as opposition from missionaries.
Three of the long-term councilmen (Buckman,
Bradley, and Warrior) were the offspring of Gros
Ventre mothers and White fathers, but were
reared by their Gros Ventre relatives and had
learned English from attending a year or two of
mission or government boarding school. Government
reports distorted the nature of leadership
among the Gros Ventres during this time because
all persons with White ancestry were labeled
"mixed bloods" and assumed to be oriented toward
White world view and ethos. However, from
the Gros Ventre point of view, and also the
Arapahoe perspective, Indian identity was defined
by cultural not biological criteria. How a
person behaved determined whether he was truly
Gros Ventre. For example, ethnologist John
Carter, while attending the 1906 Assiniboine Sun
Dance, made note of a man who had been
adopted by a Gros Ventre family when he wandered
into their camp as a small child. This man
(married to a Gros Ventre) was the child of White
parents; nonetheless, he had been "a Gros Ventre
Indian all his life" (Carter, 1936a). When questions
arose as to who was entitled to enrollment
in the Gros Ventre tribe, tribal members were
adamant that individuals who behaved like true
Gros Ventres should be enrolled, regardless of
"degree of blood." In a well-known case in 1918,
one woman of Gros Ventre and White ancestry
was supported by the general council of tribal
members, against the expressed wishes of the
superintendent. Tribal members argued that she
had "always admitted" her Gros Ventre ancestry
and had "visited the relatives on the reservation,"
and "the Indians of the reservation have visited
at her home and were recognized as relations."
Other individuals, with the same combination of
Gros Ventre and White ancestry, were rejected
for enrollment because they did not live on the
reservation, and/or associate with other Gros
Ventres (NA, 1918b).
Persons classified as Gros Ventre Mixed Bloods
by the Gros Ventres themselves lived on Milk
River and had been reared by or closely associated
with their White relatives. These Mixed
Bloods, as well as their Assiniboine neighbors
along Milk River, were involved in farming on a
larger scale than the Indians at Hays and Lodgepole.
The River district contained about onehalf
of the population of Fort Belknap, but most
people living there were Assiniboines (NA, 1909,
1919).
The Gros Ventre councilmen were by and large
residents of Hays, had been reared by Gros
Ventres, and were married to either Gros Ventres
or non-Gros Ventre Indians. In short, the councilmen
were "true Gros Ventres." Similarly, few
Mixed Bloods served on the Arapahoe business
council, although some councilmen had White
ancestry. As with the Arapahoes, Gros Ventre
council membership was markedly stable. The
elected councilmen generated consistent, universal
support and served many successive terms
until retirement or death.
We find, then, that elected business councils
were fully institutionalized among both the
Arapahoes and Gros Ventres, but that the notion
of "representative democracy" was never accepted;
instead, the role of councilman was accommodated
to native cultural concepts of authority.
The councilmen, who worked closely with
and sometimes came into conflict with Federal
personnel, were not culturally assimilated,
"marginal" individuals. Reports that differences
in the political life of the Arapahoes and Gros
Ventres were due to differential biological assimilation
are likewise inadequate. In fact, Indian
census rolls show little difference in biological
assimilation between the two tribes until the