Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION H 



reported (ibid., p. 56) . It resembles Bellen's map in that the Man tons 

 River still was not recognized to be a section of the Missom-i. The 

 Mandan lived along the Man tons River, which flowed to the southeast. 

 Their nearest neighbors were the Nadouasis who had left the head- 

 waters of the Mississippi, crossed the Red River, and were living 

 below the Mandan villages. Immediately to the west of the Mandan 

 villages were the Snake Indians; the Assiniboin were to the north. 

 The Arikara were to the southeast along the Missouri River, and the 

 Tetons occupied the prairie region between Lake Traverse and the 

 Missouri River. ^ 



During the entire period of recorded history, beginning with Thomp- 

 son in 1797 and continuing to 1845, the Hidatsa recognized three 

 independent but closely related village groups whose relative size 

 remained unchanged. Of these groups, the Hidatsa were the most 

 numerous and exceeded the other two in total numbers. The 

 Awatixa were intermediate in size, while the Awaxawi have never 

 exceeded 20 earth lodge household groups in historic times. Thomp- 

 son (1916, pp. 235-236) visited these groups when they were in their 

 winter villages and gave the following figures for households by 

 village groups: (1) Awatixa, 31 earth lodges and 7 tipis; (2) Hidatsa, 

 82 earth lodges; (3) Awaxawi and Mandan, 52 earth lodges (15 

 Awaxawi and 37 Mandan); (4) Mandan, 40 earth lodges; and (5) 

 Mandan, 113 earth lodges. For 190 Mandan lodges he estimated 

 the population to be 1,520 and for the Hidatsa (FaU Indians) 128 

 lodges and 7 tipis he gave a population of 1,330.^ 



Even as early as 1797 two contradictory accounts of the history of 

 the Hidatsa were recognized by Thompson; that they were formerly 

 agriculturalists living at the headwaters of the Red River, and that 

 they were nomadic and came from the north to settle near the Mandan, 

 where they adopted agriculture and fixed villages. The same con- 

 tradictions appear regularly in subsequent accounts, and similar 

 information was given to me by Hidatsa informants when this study 

 was made. 



LeRaye, in 1802, identified two village groups of Hidatsa; the 

 Hidatsa-proper occupying the large village (site 35) on the north 

 bank of the Knife River and the Hidatsa group, better known by the 

 natives as the Awatixa, immediately opposite on the south bank 

 (site 33). The Awaxawi, whom he called Gens-di-foulers, had an 

 independent village (site 32) 3 miles below the Awatixa (LeRaye, 

 1908, p. 169). He estimated the population of the two Hidatsa 



' Bellen probably errs in placing the Arikara so far downstream. There is much archeological evidence 

 that several Arikara village groups were at this time upstream from Pierre, S. Dak., in a region not well 

 known to explorers. 



> Identification of these village groups was by my native informants. 



