Huff Indian Village State Historic Site preserves a classic prehistoric Mandan settlement dating to about AD 1450, perhaps two hundred years before Euroamerican influence reached the Missouri Valley area. It was a very large, well-planned community where perhaps a thousand or more people once lived, and it was probably occupied for only a short time, perhaps 20 years, as indicated by the clarity of the village plan and the lack of evidence for rebuilding and trash accumulation. The site remains in pristine condition, and its community layout is easily seen on the surface. Depressions marking the locations of more than one hundred lodges are arranged roughly in rows paralleling the river bank, and the rectangular shape of the houses is still evident on the ground. A large ceremonial lodge faces an open plaza near the center of the settlement. The entire settlement is surrounded by a massive fortification system consisting of a ditch more than two-thousand feet long with ten well-defined bastions. The village, including its fortifications, covers about twelve acres. In a modern city residential area of the same size, about five city blocks, about five hundred people might reside, compared to about one thousand individuals at Huff Village. Its residents were clearly concerned about conflicts with other Indian peoples in the region, and the village was densely settled in order to minimize the length of perimeter to be defended. Huff villagers were most likely concerned about attacks from other village farmers, probably ancestors of historic Arikara Indians, who moved from the Central Plains into South Dakota during the AD 1400s. Today, the Fort Berthold Reservation in northwest North Dakota is home to the Mandans, along with the Hidatsa and Arikaras.