Mandan

Choctaw Traditions – The Council Fire, The Nahullo

The faces of the Choctaw and Chickasaw men of sixty years ago were as smooth as a woman’s, in fact they had no beard. Sometimes there might be seen a few tine hairs (if hairs they might be called) here and there upon the face, but they were few and far between, and extracted with a pair of small tweezers whenever discovered. Oft have I seen a Choctaw warrior standing before a mirror seeking with untiring perseverance and unwearied eyes, as he turned his face at different angles to the glass, if by chance a hair could be found lurking … Read more

The Discovery Of This Continent, it’s Results To The Natives

Columbus Landing on Hispaniola

In the year 1470, there lived in Lisbon, a town in Portugal, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus, who there married Dona Felipa, the daughter of Bartolome Monis De Palestrello, an Italian (then deceased), who had arisen to great celebrity as a navigator. Dona Felipa was the idol of her doting father, and often accompanied him in his many voyages, in which she soon equally shared with him his love of adventure, and thus became to him a treasure indeed not only as a companion but as a helper; for she drew his maps and geographical charts, and also … Read more

The Mandan

"The interior of the hut of a Mandan chief" - Karl Bodmer, 1833

To a description of this last people, now, as a separate race, entirely extinct, Mr. Catlin has devoted no small portion of his interesting descriptions of western adventure. They differed widely from all other American Indians in several particulars. The most noticeable of these were the great diversity in complexion and in the color and texture of the hair. “When visited by this traveler, in 1832, the Mandan were established at two villages, only two miles asunder, upon the left bank of the Missouri, about two hundred miles below the mouth of the Yellowstone. There were then not far from … Read more

Agreement of July 27, 1866

Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at Fort Berthold in the Territory of Dakota, on the twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, by and between Newton Edmunds, governor and ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs of Dakota Territory; Major General S. R. Curtis, Orrin Guernsey and Henry W. Reed, commissioners appointed on the part of the United States to make treaties with the Indians of the Upper Missouri; and the chiefs and headmen of the Arickaree tribe of Indians, Witnessed as follows: Article I. Perpetual peace, friendship, and amity … Read more

Mandan Indians

Mandan Indians. Probably a corruption of the Dakota word applied to them, Mawatani. Also called: A-rach-bo-cu, Hidatsa name (Long, 1791) As-a-ka-shi, Us-suc-car-shay, Crow name. How-mox-tox-sow-es, Hidatsa name (?). Kanit’, Arikara name. Kwowahtewug, Ottawa name. Métutahanke, own name since 1837, after their old village. Mo-no’-ni-o, Cheyenne name. Numakaki, own name prior to 1837, meaning “men,” “people.” U-ka’-she, Crow name, meaning “earth houses.” Mandan Connections. The Mandan belonged to the Siouan linguistic stock. Their connections are with the Tutelo and Winnebago rather than the nearer Siouan tribes. Mandan Location. When known to the Whites, the Mandan were on the same part of … Read more

Treaty of September 17, 1851

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Fort Laramie, in the Indian Territory, between D. D. Mitchell, superintendent of Indian affairs, and Thomas Fitzpatrick, Indian agent, commissioners specially appointed and authorized by the President of the United States, of the first part, and the chiefs, headmen, and braves of the following Indian nations, residing south of the Missouri River, east of the Rocky Mountains, and north of the lines of Texas and New Mexico, viz, the Sioux or Dahcotahs, Cheyennes, Arrapahoes, Crows, Assinaboines, Gros-Ventre Mandans, and Arrickaras, parties of the second part, on the seventeenth day of September, A. … Read more

Houses of the Mandan Tribe

"The interior of the hut of a Mandan chief" - Karl Bodmer, 1833

As mentioned in the sketch of the houses of the Assiniboin, a small party of French accompanied by members of that tribe during the autumn of 1738 went southward from the Assiniboin country to the Mandan towns, where the French remained several weeks. The leader of the expedition, La Verendrye, prepared an account of the journey, this being the earliest record of a visit by Europeans to the Mandans known to exist, although it is easily conceived that French trappers may have been among the tribe earlier in the century. The expedition arrived among the Mandan November 28, 1738, after … Read more

Mandan Tribe

Mandan Indians. A Siouan tribe of the northwest. The name, according to Maximilian, originally given by the Sioux is believed by Matthews to be a corruption of the Dakota Mawatani. Previous to 1830 they called themselves simply Numakiki, ‘people’ (Matthews). Maximilian says “if they wish to particularize their descent they add the name of the village whence they came originally.” Hayden gives Miah’tanēs, ‘ people on the bank,’ as the name they apply to themselves, and draws from this the inference that “they must have resided on the banks of the Missouri at a very remote period.” According to Morgan … Read more

Mandan

The Mandan had a vague tradition of emigration from the eastern part of the country, and Lewis and Clark, Prince Maximilian, and others found traces of Mandan house-structures at various points along the Missouri; thus they appear to have ascended that stream before the advent of the ȼegiha. During the historical period their movements were limited; they were first visited in the upper Missouri country by Sieur de la Verendrye in 1738. About 1750 they established two villages on the eastern side and seven on the western side of the Missouri, near the mouth of Heart river. Here they were … Read more

1837 Smallpox Epidemic

No disease which has been introduced among the tribes, has exercised so fatal an influence upon them as the smallpox. Their physicians have no remedy for it. Old and young regard it as if it were the plague, and, on its appearance among them, blindly submit to its ravages. This disease has appeared among them periodically, at irregular intervals of time. It has been one of the prominent causes of their depopulation. Ardent spirits, it is true, in its various forms, has, in the long run, carried a greater number of the tribes to their graves; but its effects have … Read more

Tipi and Earth Lodges of the Plains Tribes

Fig. 8. Setting up a Crow Tipi. (Tetzold photo.)

One of the most characteristic features of Plains Indian culture was the tipi. All the tribes of the area, almost without exception, used it for a part of the year at least. Primarily, the tipi was a conical tent covered with dressed buffalo skins. A carefully mounted and equipped tipi from the Black-foot Indians stands in the center of the Plains exhibit. Everywhere the tipi was made, cared for, and set up by the women. First, a conical framework of long slender poles was erected and the cover raised into place. Then the edges of the cover were staked down … Read more

Industrial Arts of the Plains Tribes

Fig. 17. Firedrill. Northern Shoshoni.

Under this head the reader may be reminded that among most American tribes each family produces and manufactures for itself. There is a more or less definite division between the work of men and women, but beyond that there is little specialization. The individuals are not of equal skill, but still each practices practically the whole gamut of industrial arts peculiar to his sex. This fact greatly increases the importance of such arts when considered as cultural traits. Fire making The methods of making fire are often of great cultural interest. So far as our data go, the method in … Read more

Hunting and Food of the Plains Tribes

Fig. 1. Sinew-backed Bow and Quiver from the Blackfoot and a Compound Bow of Mountain Sheep Horn from the Nez Percé.

Since this is a discussion of the general characteristics of Plains Indians, we shall not take them up by tribes, as is usual, but by topics, Anthropologists are accustomed to group the facts of primitive life under the following main heads: material culture (food, transportation, shelter, dress, manufactures, weapons, etc.), social organization, religion and ceremonies, art, language, and physical type. Food The flesh of the buffalo was the great staple of the Plains Indians, though elk, antelope, bear and smaller game were not infrequently used. On the other hand, vegetable foods were always a considerable portion of their diet, many … Read more

Mandan Indian Bands, Gens and Clans

Many tribes have sub-tribes, bands, gens, clans and phratry.  Often very little information is known or they no longer exist.  We have included them here to provide more information about the tribes.   Histapenumanke. A Mandan band, the first, according to their mythology, to come above ground from the subterranean lake.