Charred Body, Unknown One, First Creator, and Only Man — these are not really Gros Ventre legends at all, but Mandan and Hidatsa ones. Sometimes, especially on the Internet, they are mislabeled as Gros Ventre myths, because the Hidatsas were also called “Gros Ventres” by the early French settlers, and in the reservation era these three tribes were combined to form the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Bertold Reservation.
A long time ago the Indians roamed the West like the buffalo, one family scattered and returned by change. There were no separate tribes. One of the Indians was a woman of powerful beauty. She gave birth to twin sons, but she did not know who their father was. The beautiful woman sang her sons […]