MANDAN INDIANS

MANDANS ARE A SOUIX TRIBE OF THE NORTHWEST. THE NAME IS A CORRUPTION OF THE DAKOTA MAWATANI. PRIOR TO 1830 THEY CALLED THEMSELVES NUMAKIKI OR THE PEOPLE. THEIR ORAL TRADITIONS ONCE SUGGESTED THAT THE PEOPLE CAME FROM THE EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. THEY LIVED IN DOME SHAPED EARTH LODGES CLUSTERED IN STOCKADE VILLAGES. THEIR ECONOMY CENTERED ON RAISING CORN, BEANS, SQUASH, SUNFLOWERS, AND TOBACCO. AS WELL AS HUNTING BUFFALO, FISHING, AND TRADING. THE MANDAN MADE BASKETS, POTTERY, AND PAINTED BUFFALO ROBES DEPICTING THE HEROIC DEEDS OF THE TRIBE OF INDIVIDUALS. THEY HOSTED MANY PLAINS TRIBES AND EUROPEAN SETTLERS AS THEY WERE ONE OF THE RICHEST OF THE PLAINS TRIBES, THE TRIBE HOSTED MANY OF THE PROMINENT TRAVELERS AND LEWIS CLARK , PRUSSIA SCIENTIST, AND ARTISTS.


EACH VILLAGE HAD 12 TO 100 OR MORE EARTH LODGES. ONE VILLAGE HAD 12 TO 100OR MORE EARTH LODGES. ONE VILLAGE HAD 3 CHIEFS ONE FOR PEACE, ONE FOR WAR, AND ONE AS THE DAY TO DAY LEADER. THEIR RELIGION WAS SELF SACRIFICE BY PARTICIPANTS. IT WAS AN ELABORATION OF THE SUNDANCE THAT MOST TRIBES USED THEY HAD THREE IMPORTANT PURPOSES TO COMMEMORATE THE TRIBE'S DIVINE SALVATION FROM THE PRIMORDIAL FLOOD. THEY CALLED THE BUFFALO AND OTHER BEASTS THEIR COMMUNION WITH SPIRITS. THEY ALSO HAVE A VEHICLE THROUGH WHICH INDIVIDUALS COULD COMPLETE VOWS MADE BY THE ALMIGHTY FOR CURING A SICKNESS. THEY MADE COMMUNITY PRAYERS AND HAS A CALL OF SPIRIT BEINGS. TO THE RITUAL LOCALE, BY SELF SACRIFICE THROUGH FASTING, EXERTION AND PIERCING AND BY THE GIVING OF GIFTS FROM SPIRITUAL MEMBERS.BY 1750 THEY HAD 9 LARGE VILLAGES AND EPIDEMICS OF SMALL POX AND OTHER DISEASES REDUCED THE TRIBE TO TWO VILLAGES BY 1800. IN 1837 ANOTHER SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC LEFT ONLY 150 SURVIVOR. SOME OF THESE ACCOMPANIED THE SURVIVORS TO A NEW VILLAGE AT FORT BERTOLD. ARIKAWA ALSO WENT WEST THERE THE MANDAN, ARIKAWA AND HIDATSU ERE KNOWN AS THE THREE AFFILIATED TRIBES.

IN 1950'S THESE TRIBES LOST A CONSIDERABLE PORTION OF THEIR RESERVATION TO THE LAKE SAKAKAWEA FLOODING WATERS AS THEY ROSE BEHIND THE DAM. THEY SHIFTED FROM AGRICULTURAL TO RANCHING OFF RESERVATION PURSUITS. TODAY THERE ARE 1300 MANDAN.

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