(French; " Big Bellies ")
North American Indian group living in north-central Montana, U.S. Known to the Blackfoot as Atsina, they call themselves Ah-ah-nee-nin, meaning "White Clay People.
" The Gros Ventres are an offshoot of the Algonquian-speaking Arapaho tribe, from which they may have separated as early as 1700; they were living in what is now northern Montana and adjacent regions of Canada in late historic times and were culturally similar to other Plains Indian s. Together with the Assiniboin , they were settled on Fort Belknap Reservation, Mont. Some 2,900 people claimed sole Gros Ventres descent in the 2000 U.S. census. The name Gros Ventres has also been applied to the Hidatsa .