126 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY ° [BULL. 77 
on the Missouri, about thirty miles below where they now live. The 
Assiniboins and Sioux forced them to a spot five miles higher, where 
the greatest part of them were put to death, and the rest emigrated 
to their present situation, in order to obtain an asylum near the 
Minnetarees. They are called by the French, Soulier Noir or Shoe 
Indians; by the Mandans, Wattasoons, and their whole force is about 
fifty men. 
“On the south side of the same Knife river, half a mile above the 
Mahaha and in the same open plain with it, is a village of the Minne- 
tarees surnamed Metaharta, who are about one hundred and fifty men 
in number. On the opposite side of Knife river, and one and a 
half mile above this village is a second of Minnetarees, who may be 
considered as the proper Minnetaree nation. It is situated. in a 
beautiful low plain, and contains four hundred and fifty warriors.” 
(Op. cit., pp. 129-131.) 
In their journal, kept while in winter quarters at Fort Mandan, 
are to be found many interesting references to-the Mandan. To 
quote several of these will tend to shed light on the ways of life in 
the native village. On November 22, 1804, the Mandan sold to the 
members of the expedition “a quantity of corn of a mixed colour, 
which they dug up in ears from the holes made near the front of their 
lodges, in which it is buried during the winter.” This had probably 
been gathered only a few weeks before the arrival of the party at 
the village, then deposited in the caches for future use. December 
19 the weather had moderated, and the Indians were seen playing a 
game on the level space between the lodges of the first and second 
chiefs, a distance of about 50 yards. The entry for January 13, 
1805, contains an interesting note: “ We have a continuation of clear 
weather, and the cold has increased, the mercury having sunk to 
34 below 0. Nearly one half of the Mandan nation passed down the 
river to hunt for several days; in these excursions men, women and 
children, with their dogs, all leave the village together, and after 
discovering a spot convenient for the game, fix their tents; all the 
family bear their part in the labour, and the game is equally divided 
among the families of the tribe.” And on February 12, it was told 
how “The horses of the Mandans are so often stolen by the Sioux, 
Ricaras, and Assiniboins, that the invariable rule now is to put the 
horses every night in the same lodge with the family. In the sum- 
mer they ramble in the plains in the vicinity of the camp, and feed 
on the grass, but during cold weather the squaws cut down the cot- 
tonwood trees as they are wanted, and the horses feed on the boughs 
and bark of the tender branches, which are also brought into the 
lodges at night and placed near them.” 
About the year 1797, and consequently a few years before the ar- 
rival of the Lewis and Clark expedition at the Mandan villages, John 
