BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 147 
souri Valley. Several boats of this sort are shown by Bodmer in his 
picture of the Mandan village (pl. 39), and Kurz likewise left many 
drawings of these peculiar craft (pl. 45, c). 
In addition to the several forms of structures already mentioned, 
the Hidatsa evidently erected a very secure temporary lodge when 
away from their villages on hunting trips. On November 7, 1833, 
when descending the Missouri, and just before arriving at Fort Clark, 
Maximilian wrote: “Our breakfast was prepared at nine o’clock, 
when we lay to on the north bank, in a narrow strip of forest, where 
we found some old Indian hunting lodges, built, in a conical form, 
of dry timber. They had, doubtless, been left by the Manitaries, who 
had come thus far on their hunting excursions. The lower part of 
the huts, or lodges, was covered with the bark of trees; the entrance 
was square, and bones were scattered in all directions. We proceeded 
with a bleak, high wind, saw the singular clay tops of the hills, and, 
in the forest, the stages made of poles, where the Indian hunters dry 
the flesh of the animals they have taken in the chase. About twelve 
o’clock we came to the spot where some stakes indicated the former 
site of a Mandan village. . . We are now in the centre of the terri- 
tory of the Manitaries.” (Maximilian, (1), pp. 314-315.) Probably 
the danger of attack by their enemies made necessary the erection of 
these comparatively secure shelters. 
About the year 1845 many Hidatsa removed from the vicinity of 
Knife River and reared a new village not far from Fort Berthold, 
some 60 miles up the Missouri from old Fort Clark. They were 
joined from time to time by other members of their tribe, and also 
by many of the remaining Mandan. In 1862 the Arikara became the 
third tribe to settle near Fort Berthold. But in 1850 the Arikara 
continued to occupy the old Mandan town just below Fort Clark, the 
large village of earth lodges so often visited and mentioned by the 
explorers and traders during the early years of the last century. 
It is quite evident the new settlement of the Hidatsa did not differ 
in appearance from the old Mandan town, the later home of the Ari- 
kara, and on June 13, 1850, Culbertson wrote from Fort Berthold: 
“The village, with its mud lodges, differs nothing in looks from the 
Ree village described yesterday, except in one particular, that is, 
the inhabitants are now engaged in surrounding it with pickets. The 
logs are well prepared and are all up except on the west side; a 
bastion with loop holes is placed in the middle of each side. This 
picket is of course to protect the inmates against enemies by whom 
they are frequently attacked.” (Culbertson, (1), pp. 118-119.) This 
is a most interesting reference. Could this palisade have been the 
one to which Matthews alluded as having stood until 1865? The 
manner of constructing the palisade, with “a bastion... in 
