OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 181 



4. Mandans. Tlic Mantlans liave been brouglit into more promitient and 

 favorable notice than any other Indian nation of tlie interior. The accounts of 

 Lewis and Clark, who spent the winter of 180-1-1805 at their principal villag(; ; 

 of Catlin, who resided for several months in the year 1832, in the same village ; 

 and of Prince Maximilian, who visited the place in 1833, have furnished a larger 

 amount of information concerning this nation than has been given of any other 

 upon the Missouri River. When first discovered they were agricultural, and Vil- 

 lage Indians. Their advanced condition in resources and intelligence is to be 

 ascribed to their stationary life, and to their agricultural habits. The change from 

 a roving life in the tent to permanency in large communities, and from fish and 

 game to bread in connection with animal food produces a marked improvement in 

 the social condition of any Indian nation. It also affords a better opportunity to 

 witness their domestic life, from which, as a stand point, they should be judged. 

 This has rarely been the combination of circumstances under which our knowledge 

 of the American Indians has been acquired. The highly favorable representations 

 of Lewis and Clark, Catlin, and Maximilian arc due, in some measure, to their 

 unusual opportunities for observation. 



It is questionable whether the Mandans originated the partial civilization of 

 which they were found possessed. There are strong reasons for believing that 

 they obtained both their knowledge of agriculture and of house building from the 

 Minnitarees, a people who migrated to the Upper Missouri after the Mandans had 

 become established in the same region, and of whom the early accounts are not less 

 favorable than of the Mandans themselves. Both of these nations constructed a 

 house of a peculiar mode, usually called the " Dirt Lodge," although this designa- 

 tion fails to express the advance which it represents in the architecture of the 

 Ganowanian family. It was a house on the communal principle, thoroughly con- 

 structed with a timber frame, commodious in size, and extremely neat and com- 

 fortable.' It is a question of some interest from what source this house, and agri- 

 culture, found their way to the Upper Missouri. 



born, and so on, rather than terms of relationship. In Winnebagoe and Isauntie Dakota they are as 

 follows : — 



Winnetogop. Isauntie Dakota, 



First daughter, E-noo'-kii. We-no'kii. 



Second " Wa-hun'-kil. Hil'-pan. 



Third " Ah-kse-ii'-ka. Ha'-pes-ten-ua. 



Fourth " E-uuk-ha'ka. Wan'-ska. 



Fifth " Ah-kse-gii-ho'-no-ka. We-hii'-ka. 



• In 1862 I visited the ruins of the Mandan village above referred to. It was abandoned by them 

 in 1838, after the visitation of the pestilence which nearly depopulated the village. The Arickarees 

 soon after occupied it, and held possession until the spring of 1862, when the inroads of the Dakotas 

 forced them to abandon it in turn. It contained the remains of about forty houses, most of them 

 polygonal in form, and about forty feet in diameter. The village was situated upon a bluff about 

 fifty feet high at a bend in the Missouri River, which afforded a site of much natural beauty. Some 

 miles above, on the opposite or east side of the river, we found the present Mandan and Minnitaree 

 village, which they occupy together. The situation is upon a similar bluff at a bend, and the houses 

 are constructed upon the same model. Both the old and the new village were stockaded. The 

 Mandans, who now number but two hundred and fifty souls, were estimated by Lewis and Clarke 



