BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 141 
tribe. Their language differs only slightly from that of the Hidatsa. 
During the early years of the last century their one village stood at 
the mouth of Knife River. Already greatly reduced in numbers, 
they suffered during the epidemic of 1837, and later the majority of 
those who had survived became more closely associated with the 
Hidatsa. 
HIDATSA. 
The Hidatsa, also known as the Minnetarees and designated by 
some writers the Gros Ventres of the Missouri, a name which must 
not be confused with Gros Ventres of the Prairie often applied to 
the Atsina, lived when first known to Europeans near the junction 
of the Knife and Missouri Rivers, in the eastern part of the present 
Mercer County, North Dakota. Some are of the belief that it was 
the Hidatsa and not the Mandan whom the French, under La Veren- 
drye, visited during the autumn and winter of 1738, but in the 
present sketch the Mandan are accepted as undoubtedly being the 
tribe at whose villages the French remained. 
The Hidatsa villages as seen by Catlin and Maximilian during the 
years 1832, 1833, and 1834 had probably changed little since the 
winter of 1804-05, when Lewis and Clark occupied Fort Mandan, 
their winter quarters, some 8 miles below the mouth of Knife River. 
Describing the villages, Catlin said the principal one stood on the 
bank of Knife River and consisted of 40 or 50 earth-covered lodges, 
each from 40 to 50 feet in diameter, and this town being on an ele- 
vated bank overlooked the other two which were on lower ground 
“and almost lost amidst their numerous corn fields and other profuse 
vegetation which cover the earth with their luxuriant growth. 
“The scenery along the banks of this little river, from village to 
village, is quite peculiar and curious; rendered extremely so by the 
continual wild and garrulous groups of men, women, and children, 
who are wending their way along its winding shores, or dashing and 
plunging through its blue waves, enjoying the luxury of swimming, 
of which both sexes seem to be passionately fond. Others are pad- 
dling about in their tub-like canoes, made of the skins of buffaloes.” 
(Catlin, (1), I, p. 186.) Among the great collection of Catlin’s 
paintings belonging to the United States National Museum, in Wash- 
ington, is one of the large village. The original painting is repro- 
duced in plate 48. A drawing of the same was shown as plate 70 in 
Catlin’s work cited above. The work is crude but interesting his- 
torically, and conveys some idea of the appearance of the town, 
although in this, as in other paintings by the same artist, the earth 
lodges are very poorly drawn, failing to show the projection which 
served as the entrance and having the roofs too rounded and dome- 
shaped. Bodmer’s sketches are far superior. 
