The Gros Ventres of the Prairie were once Arapaho and lived on the Arkansas. They have for a century past resided with the Blackfeet, yet have preserved their own language. True, by these means they learn to speak each other’s language, but they do not commingle and make a separate dialect of the two. The Assiniboin from the Sioux, the Cree from the Chippewa, the Crows from the Gros Ventres are three other cases of separation, and in each the language is so well preserved that they understand without any difficulty the people whence they emanated. The causes of these separations, whether feuds, family discords, or in quest of better hunting grounds, does not now appear. Most probably it was dissatisfaction of some sort. From all appearances we may reasonably expect to see ere long a portion of the Sioux occupying the large disputed territory south of the Missouri and along the Yellowstone, as game is becoming scarce in their district since white emigration through it and Indians are thronging there from St. Peters and elsewhere. The Sioux regard the Mississippi as once their home, and it is very certain that nation came from thence, also the Cree and Assiniboin, and perhaps others. It does not appear that the track of migration pursued any direct course. From certain facts, similitude of language and customs, it would seem some nations traveled from south to north or northwest, such as the Gros Ventres of the Prairie who were once Arapaho. The Arikara speak the same as the Pawnee and must have migrated westward. The Blackfeet moved from north to southwest, and the Crows, Cree, and Assiniboin west and north. It is reasonable to believe they spread out over these immense plains from all points and at different times as circumstances favored or forced them. The habits of the prairie Indian differ essentially from the Indian of the forest, and those of stationary and cultivating habits from both. It is impossible for us now to state with any degree of certainty the time of their first location on these plains, or to point out any one general course of emigration pursued by them. GEOGRAPHY