Sum 05 Mandan 26-32
5/17/05
11:07 PM
Page 26
Distinctions With It was once thought that the Plains tribes the Mandan and the Hidatsa were practically indistinguishable. But a series of investigations has revealed considerable evidence to the contrary. By Sally Bell
S M I T H S O N I A N A M E R I C A N A R T M U S E U M , W A S H I N G T O N , D C / A R T R E S O U R C E , N Y P. 2 8
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ll that’s visible today of central North Dakota’s long-abandoned Mandan and Hidatsa villages are earthen mounds and depressions marking circular earthlodges and defensive ditches. But in their prime, several hundred years ago, these villages hugged terraces high above narrow swaths of fertile bottomland on the Missouri River and its Knife and Heart river tributaries. These sites are examples of what archaeologists call the Plains Village tradition, typified by permanent settlements supported by a combination of maize horticulture and bison hunting. Along the floodplain, women wielding bone hoes and rakes farmed patchwork fields of corn, squashes, sunflowers, and beans. They also made pottery, cooked, and worked animal hides. When they weren’t hunting, the men crafted sharp stone or bone tools and weapons. According to historical records, the women also built spacious earthlodges, constructed of posts and beams covered with soil, that could span 45 feet. With walls up to three feet thick, their homes were snug during harsh prairie weather, and sturdy enough that This 1832 painting by the renowned artist George Catlin shows Sakakawea Village, a Hidatsa community of the banks of the Knife River. Sakakawea was destroyed in 1834. Catlin, who was known for his paintings of Indians, considered his work to be a documentary record of a vanishing race.
summer • 2005
