Life on the plains is hard. The winters are long and so very cold. Few trees block the strong winds out of the mountainous west. The plains yield little to sustain a family. So we work, we grow food, we hunt, and we trade our surplus for goods brought by the nomadic tribes.

The Mandan people were a Native American tribe of the northern plains. They struggled against a hostile climate, prospered though harassed by hostile tribes, and created a rich cultural lifestyle in prehistoric America. This is the story of the Mandan people before, during, and after the invasion of the Europeans.

The Mandans believed they were created beneath the earth, and lived there for a long time. After a dispute between "First Man" and "Lord of Life" a hole opened that allowed a grapevine to grow down to them. With the vine came light and the chance to leave their subterranean confines. With the help of other animals (spirit animals) the hole was enlarged and they began to climb out,

The Mandans' oral history describes a steady move to the west and north because of attacks from more hostile tribes and the need to find fertile land to cultivate. In 1738 when Verendrye made the first contact with the Mandan Indians, they lived at the mouth of the Heart River near present day Mandan North Dakota (Densmore, pg 6)(Mandan ND is where this student spent his childhood). Europeans introduced another reason to move Smallpox. The first smallpox epidemic was recorded in 1781 and the population estimated at four thousand dwindled to approximately one thousand five hundred (Dictionary of Indian tribes pg 440). Smallpox was most likely brought to the Mandans by French fur traders. It, along with Sioux harassment, caused the Mandans to leave their homes at the junction of the Heart and Missouri rivers.

Author Unknown. Internet site "northdakota.SurfBISNet.com"

(Welker 1996) The life of the Mandan tribe was fairly unregimented, divorce and polygamy were common. The work was, however, sharply divided along gender lines. The men did the hunting and fighting, while the women did the gardening and took care of the lodge (Dictionary of Indian tribes. pg 439). When the weather permitted, the families gathered on the lodge. The men played games, told warrior tales, and the women made clothes. In the evening people gathered on the lodges and sang songs. The tops of lodges were also used to store large items like sledges and bull boats(Densmore pg 5). Bull boats were made by stretching hides over wooden frames. Enemy scalps were also displayed on the tops of the lodges so they could be seen from outside of the village. Outside of the lodge a scaffold was made on which corn was dried, this also provided shade for the livestock during the heat of summer (Densmore pg 4).

Another dance required only four tribesmen , representing the four main directions of the compass from which the buffalo might come. With a canoe in the center, two dancers, dressed as grizzly bears who might attack the hunters, took their places on each side. They growled and threatened to spring upon anyone who might interfere with the ceremony.

On these beams successively smaller limbs were laid until earth would not fall through. Then earth was built up thick enough for grass to take root. This would hold the earth together and prevent the erosion of the protective and insulating layer of earth. Fires built in the center of the lodge would provide heat so a hole was left in the center of the roof to allow the smoke to escape. The villages were always located on the high ground at the junction of two rivers. This was a more defensible position since attacking tribes could only come from one direction and provided the Mandan people greater safety and security. The side of the village not protected by a river was protected by two pickets of sharpened stakes with a three to four foot ditch between them.

The story of the Mandan Indians mirrors the story of Native Americans as a whole. The Natives suffered at the hand of the Europeans through war, disease, or both. Their lands were taken at the discretion of the US government without consideration or compensation. The lack of respect for Native American depth, diversity, and majesty is a great tragedy.

The main interactions between separate Mandan villages were conducted in Dance Societies or Clubs that met periodically (Densmore, pg 84). The societies were composed of differing age groups and were progressive from one to another (Densmore, pg 108). Some of these dance societies for men included the Buffalo Society, the White Society, the Foolish Dog Society, and the Fox Society. The dance societies for women included the Goose Women Society, the Little River Women Society, and the Skunk Society. These societies met with some ceremony and reverence described in the oral history of the Mandans (Densmore, pg 84).

The Journals of Lewis and Clark. DeVoto, Bern

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Approximate Word count = 3600
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)