HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND 



The first reference in the literature to the Hidatsa as an independent 

 tribal group was made by Thompson (1916, pp. 209-242), who visited 

 the villages of this tribe and of the Mandan in 1797. Prior to that 

 time, owing to the similarities between the cultures, tribal differences 

 apparently were not recognized by the early White traders; all these 

 earth lodge village groups living upstream from the Heart River were 

 known as Mandan, from the name given by the Assiniboin to the 

 more numerous and sedentary tribe. The Mandan, prior to the 1782 

 smaUpox epidemic, must have greatly outnumbered the population 

 of the three Hidatsa villages. The latter, however, were not recog- 

 ni2;ed as separate tribal and linguistic groups xmtil White traders had 

 come to live in the villages and had actually learned the native lan- 

 guages. When Thompson visited the five village groups of Hidatsas 

 and Mandans, his information was obtained from traders who had 

 married into the tribes and were living in the villages. 



In 1738, La V6rendrye (1927, pp. 290-360) visited earth lodge 

 village groups on the Missouri downstream from the traditional village 

 sites of this tribe believed, on the basis of archeological findings, to 

 have been occupied at this time. Although there is no reference in 

 La Verendrye's account to visiting groups other than the "Man- 

 tanees," he may have seen the Awaxawi group of Hidatsa who were 

 then more closely associated with the upstream Mandan village 

 groups. 



Mackintosh, in 1773, reported that the Mandan were living on 

 both banks of the Missom-i with from 9 to 13 villages and many 

 thousands of warriors (Schoolcraft, 1851, vol. 3, p. 253). However, 

 no reference is made to other tribal earth lodge groups. His estima- 

 tion of the Mandan population is obviously excessive and it is to be 

 presumed, on the basis of traditional and archeological evidence, that 

 some Hidatsa village groups, particularly the Awatixa and Awaxawi, 

 were also included in these figures. 



Although the M. Bellen map of 1755 was the first to show the 

 location of the Mandan villages, indicating that the Mandan and 

 Arikara were separated by a stretch of about 300 miles on the Missouri 

 River, no reference is made to the Hidatsa in relation to these other 

 earth-lodge groups (WincheU, 1911, p. 47). The Laurie and Whittle 

 map (1782) enumerates and locates a number of tribes heretofore not 



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