George Catlin had, many years ago, interested us in the Mandans, by his effort to prove, from their _red hair_ in some cases--perhaps only _redded_ hair--and in some instances blue eyes, and the resemblances which he claims to have found in their languages, that they were the descendants of a Welsh colony that had dropped out of history a thousand years ago. And Dr. Washington Matthews of the United States Army had created in us a desire to do something for the spiritual enlightenment of the Hidatsa, by his admirable grammar and dictionary of their language. In his introduction to this book he gives us much valuable information about the people.
Hidatsa, he tells us, is the name by which they call themselves. They are better known to us by the names Minnetaree and Gros Ventre. This last is a name given them by the Canadian French, and without any special reason. It is a fact that Indians can eat large quantities of food, but it is very rarely indeed that you will find one whose appearance would justify the epithet _gros ventre_. The other term, Minnetaree, is the name given them by the Mandans, and means, _to cross the water_. The story is that when the Hidatsa people came to the Missouri River from the north-east, the Mandan village was on the west side of the river. They called over, and the Mandans answered back in their own language: "Who are you?" The Hidatsa, not understanding it, supposed they had asked, "What do you want?" and so replied; "_Minnetaree, to cross over the water_." Whence came the Hidatsa? Their legend says they originally lived _under_ a great body of water which lies far to the north-east of where they now live. From this under-water residence some persons found their way out, and, discovering a country much better than the one in which they lived, returned and gave to their people such glowing accounts of their discoveries that the whole nation determined to come out. But, owing to the breaking of a tree on which they were climbing out of the lake, a great part of the tribe had to remain behind in the water, and they are there yet.
This is very much like the myth of another tribe, who lived under the ground by a lake. A large grape-vine sent its tap-root through the crust of the earth, and by that they commenced to climb out. But a very fat woman taking hold of the vine, it broke, and the remainder were doomed to stay where they were. Do such legends contain any reference to the great Deluge?