Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

90 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
parently saw no special role for elders in solving
the difficult problems of reservation life. Second,
contact conditions on the Northern Plains were
different from those on the Central Plains: these
differences affected political reorganization
among the Gros Ventres and Arapahoes. The
large numbers of emigrants who traveled the
Oregon Trail through Arapahoe country brought
about a drastic reduction of game and made it
impossible for the tribe to continue to survive by
hunting buffalo. The Arapahoes became dependent
on the government for much of their subsistence
twenty years earlier than did the Gros
Ventres. The dependence on the government
made intermediary chieftainship more important
to the Arapahoes than to the Gros Ventres. Elderly
Arapahoe priests worked to unify the people
behind these chiefs so that the chiefs would be
Berry, Edward E.
1973. The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation: The First
One Hundred Years, 1855-1955. Manuscript in
the Special Collections, Montana State University
Library, Bozeman.
Burke, Lemuel
1877. Diary. Manuscript in the collections of Montana
State Historical Society Library, Helena.
Campbell, J.A.
1869. Letter Books. Entry for 29 November 1869. Historical
Research and Publications Division, Wyoming
State Archives and Historical Department,
Cheyenne.
Carter, John
1936a. Notes on Fort Belknap Reservation from 1906-
1907. Manuscript in files of Department of Anthropology,
American Museum of Natural History,
New York.
1936b. Notes on the History, Social and Ceremonial Organization
of the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, 1909.
Manuscript in the files of Department of Anthropology,
American Museum of Natural History,
New York.
Cooper, John M.
1957. The Gros Ventres of Montana, Part II: Religion and
Ritual. Washington, D.C; Catholic University of
America Press.
Curtis, Edward S.
1928. The North American Indian. Volume 5. Norwood,
Massachusetts: Plimpton.
Literature Cited
effective in dealing with federal officials. On the
other hand, in Canada and on the Missouri and
its tributaries, the Gros Ventres were involved in
trading with Whites earlier and more intensively
than were the Arapahoes who were more remote
from the traders. In consequence, the Gros Ventre
age grade system was disrupted by intertribal
warfare and large population losses from epidemics
far earlier than was the Arapahoe age grade
system. Reservation settlement provided the conditions
that revitalized the intermediary leadership
role among the Gros Ventres and, at the
same time, further undermined the authority of
elders. Among the Arapahoes, the influence of
the priests continued, reinforcing the authority of
councilmen, on the one hand, and convincing
Whites that Arapahoes did not have an efficient,
"modern" tribal government, on the other.
Dusenberry, Verne
1963. Ceremonial Sweat Lodges of the Gros Ventre Indians.
Ethnos, 28:46-62.
Elkin, Henry
1940. The Northern Arapaho of Wyoming. In Ralph
Linton, editor. Acculturation in Seven American Indian
Tribes, pages 207-258. New York: D. Appleton-
Century.
Ewers, John C.
1974. Ethnological Report on the Blackfeet and Gros
Ventres Tribes of Indians. In D.A. Horr, editor,
American Indian Ethnohistory: Plains Indians—Blackfeet
Indians, pages 23-202. New York and London:
Garland Publishing Company.
Farber, William O.
1970. Representative Government: Application to the
Sioux. In Ethel Nurge, editor, The Modern Sioux,
pages 123-139. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press.
Federal Archives and Record Center, Seattle, Washington
(FARC)
1904. Tribal Council Proceedings. Box 447, Records of
Fort Belknap Reservation, Record Group 75.
1913. Letter from C.F. Hauke to George Cochran, 21
May 1913. File 308.3, Box 189, Records of Fort
Belknap Reservation, Record Group 75.
Flannery, Regina
1947. The Changing Form and Functions of the Gros
Ventre Grass Dance. Primitive Man, 20:39-70.
1953. The Gros Ventres of Montana, Part I: Social Life. Wash-