Winter Villages and Lodges

The Mandans and neighboring Hidatsas established winter villages in the forested river bottoms of the Missouri River and Knife River valleys, choosing these temporary sites for available resources, protection from harsh winter weather, and defense against intruders. Cottonwood stands in the bottomland forest supplied timber for earthlodge construction and fuel, and bark for horse fodder, while game also sought refuge there, making these vital resources for winter survival. From late autumn through the winter until March, the summer villages were largely abandoned as the Mandans and Hidatsas lived in earthlodges smaller than their summer lodges but built on the same plan, according to Prince Maximilian. Travel between the winter villages and Fort Clark took place by dog sled, on foot, and sometimes on horseback, as depicted in Karl Bodmer's artwork. On December 3, 1833, Prince Maximilian reported that the Mandan village near the fort was entirely forsaken and that after about an hour and a half of travel he reached the village in the wood, the winter residence of the inhabitants of Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush. Anthropologist Gilbert Wilson relayed from Hidatsa informants that the winter earthlodges were completed in about a week. Life in the winter villages included subsistence chores and recreation; women carried firewood and tanned hides, and winter bison hunts were staged from the villages. The lodges were often clustered more tightly in winter villages than in the more expansive summer settlements. In the spring of 1838, when the Mandans returned from their winter village, they found that the Arikaras had taken possession of the summer village where they would reside until 1861.

North Dakota · United States