Mandan Indians Essay Research Paper The History

Mandan Indians Essay, Research Paper

The History of the

Mandan Indians

in North Dakota

and the impact of the

European invasion

History 262

“A North Dakota winter” (Encarta 95)

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.

PRE CONTACT

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, but the vine broke leaving half of them behind to live beneath the earth. This was said to have happened near a lake to the east when “Good Fur Robe” was chief. “Good Fur Robe”, is believed to be the father of agrarian life for the Mandans, he is thought to have taught them to live on the earth (Densmore, pg 7) They called themselves “Numakake” or “men” (Dictionary of Indian Tribes, pg 438) .The name Mandan is thought to be a corrupted version of “Miwatani” which is believed to be a name the Sioux used to refer to the Mandan villagers (Densmore, pg 3). The Mandans survived by constructing earthen lodges in which they lived , stored food, wintered their livestock and rode out the cold North Dakota winters. These lodges surrounded a plaza that contained a ceremonial lodge and a sacred cedar post enclosed by wooden planks. Life centered around the lodge. There were smaller family lodges around a larger ceremonial lodge for meetings, music, story telling, and of course ceremonies. The structure of these lodges was quite elaborate. Large log posts were erected in circles one inside the other with the outer circle about twenty five feet across and the innermost ten feet across. The ceremonial lodge was somewhat larger. The outer ring of posts were about four feet tall and the innermost about fifteen feet tall. Across each pair of posts beams were laid, forming rings that decreased in size as they increased in height.

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(Holloway, “Mandan-Hidatsa Tribes Earth Lodge”)

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 Mandan people were not only farmers. The men also hunted the buffalo and other plains animals for food as well as ceremonial purposes. When the village went on a hunting trip they lived in teepees so they could follow the herd while collecting meat and fur. These trips were embarked on each spring after a ceremony called the buffalo dance.

“The Buffalo Dance”

The most exciting event of the years festival was the Buffalo Dance. Eight men participated, wearing buffalo skins on their backs and painting themselves black, red, and white. Dancers endeavored to imitate the buffalo on the prairie.

Each dancer held a rattle in his right hand, and in his left a six-foot rod. On his head, he wore a bunch of green willow boughs. The season for the return of the buffalo coincided with the willow trees on full leaf.

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.

Onlookers tried to appease the grizzlies by tossing food to them. The two dancers would pounce upon the food, carrying it away to the prairie as possible lures for the coming of the buffaloes.

During the ceremony, the old men of the tribe beat upon drums and chanted prayers for successful buffalo hunting.

By the end of the fourth day of the Buffalo Dance, a man entered the camp disguised as the evil spirit of famine. Immediately he was driven away by shouts and stone-throwing from the younger Mandans, who waited excitedly to participate in the ceremony.

When the demon of famine was successfully driven away, the entire tribe joined in the bountiful thanksgiving feast, symbolic of the early return of buffalo to the Mandan hunting grounds.

(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).

One of the ancient values of the Mandans that has survived for centuries was the emphasis on the “Good “Man”. The idea of the “Good Man” is that of one who does not seek to glorify himself or rise above his fellow man. This appears to have permeated the Mandan society (Dictionary of Indian tribes. pg 439). They treated friendly visitors as guests and shared their food and homes with many who passed the village. This practice gained the Mandans many trading partners, as did the practice of resisting confederations with Sioux and Chippewa war parties (Densmore, pg 12). Unlike some Siouan tribes that practiced self torture and mutilation for the young to be inducted into society. The Mandans appear to have practiced little discipline when inducting children into society of elders.

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).

Within the village there were important semi-political positions. The corn priest was said to have supernatural powers and always knew what type of corn and other crops each family grew. He also provided all of the seeds to the villagers for the next years’ crop (Densmore, pg 36). Each village also had a War Chief and a Peace Chief. They were chosen from amongst the elder men of the village (Dictionary of Indian tribes pg 439). If a man wanted to make war he would quietly offer a gift of tobacco and ask the other men of the village to join him (The war party left quietly and was often accompanied by the wife of a slain warrior. She would be given the scalps of the enemy to show she had avenged her husband’s death (Densmore, pg 145).

The burial customs of the Mandans are similar to those of other Siouan Indian tribes. The dead were placed on scaffolds outside the village on level ground and left there. When the scaffold fell the skulls were placed on a bunch of wild sage. Villagers would go to where the skulls rested and talk with their deceased friends and relatives (Densmore, pg 6).

In their interactions with other more nomadic tribes the Mandans appear to have profited by trading their surplus crops and livestock for things not available locally. It is believed that through the Arikara to the south corn from the Mandans was traded as far south as Mexico, especially during southern droughts (Fort Berthold College Bulletin).

EUROPEAN CONTACT

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.

They moved north twice more. They stopped where the Knife river joins the Missouri, and built a new village. This was where Lewis and Clark discovered them.