Wood and Thiessen present an interdisciplinary analysis of the Mandan and Hidatsa villages near the confluence of the Knife and Missouri Rivers in present-day North Dakota, where the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1804-1805. The article combines archaeological evidence from village sites with historical documentation from the expedition journals and other sources to reconstruct the social, economic, and political organization of these communities. The authors examine the earth-lodge villages’ layout and construction, agricultural practices centered on corn, beans, and squash, and the complex intertribal trade network that made the Mandan-Hidatsa villages the commercial hub of the northern Great Plains. The article discusses the devastating impact of the 1781 smallpox epidemic that had reduced the Mandan from multiple large villages to just two by the time of Lewis and Clark’s arrival, and foreshadows the catastrophic 1837 epidemic that would nearly destroy the Mandan as a people.
Research Article
