14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



Lewis and Clark (1804-05) wintered near the Mandan and Hidatsa 

 villages. They also grouped together two Hidatsa village groups, 

 the Hidatsa and the Awatixa (sites 35 and 33) as a separate tribe to 

 distinguish them from the Awaxawi. Concerning the earth lodge 

 villages at this point they wrote: 



The villages near which we are established are five in number, and are the 

 residence of three distinct nations: the Mandans, the Ahnahaways [Awaxawi],' 

 and the Minnetarees [Hidatsa and Awatixa]. 



On the same side of the river, and at a distance of 4 miles from the lower Mandan 

 village, is another called Mahaha [The Mandan name for the Awaxawi]. It is 

 situated on a high plain at the mouth of Knife river, and is the residence of the 

 Ahnahaways . . . [They] formerly resided on the Missouri, about 30 miles below 

 where they now live. The Assiniboins and Sioux forced them to a spot 5 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 

 . . . their whole force is about 50 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 Minnetarees surnamed Metaharta * 

 who are about 150 men in number. On the opposite side of Knife river, and one 

 and a half miles above this village, is a second of Minnetarees, who may be 

 considered as the proper Minnetaree nation [Hidatsa]. It is situated in a beauti- 

 ful low plain, and contains 450 warriors. 



. . . The Mandans say that this people came out of the water to the east 

 and settled near them in their former establishment in nine villages; . . . The 

 Minnetarees proper assert, on the contrary, that they grew where they now live . . . 

 They also say that the . . . Minnetarees of the Willows,^ whose language 

 with very little variation is their own, came many years ago from the plains and 

 settled near them. Perhaps the two traditions may be reconciled by the natural 

 presumption that these Minnetarees [Hidatsa] were the tribes known to the 

 Mandans below, and that they ascended the river for the purpose of rejoining 

 the Minnetaree proper. 



The inhabitants of these five villages, all of which are within the distance of 

 6 miles, live in harmony with one another. The Ahnahaways understand in 

 part the language of the Minnetarees. The dialect of the Mandans differs widely 

 from both; but their long residence together has insensibly blended their manners, 

 and occasioned some approximation in language, particularly as to objects of 

 daily occurrence and obvious to the senses. [Lewis, 1893, pp. 196-200.] 



Although Lewis and Clark's analysis of the history of Hidatsa village 

 groups is somewhat confusing, many of these conflicting traditions can 

 be resolved by examining the Hidatsa not as a tribe but as independent 

 village groups. Both the LeRaye and Lewis and Clark accounts agree 

 in designating the Awaxawi, although dialectically related to the 

 others, as somewhat removed culturally. Lewis and Clark further 



' Village group names in brackets are my interpretations. 



* The Mandan name for Awatixa meaning "Scattered Village." Another Mandan equivalent is 

 "mitoxtE" which is the name by which the Mandan also speak of the village on the present site of the city 

 of Mandan, N. Dak. 



• So far as we know this name was applied only to the Hidatsa, never to the Awatixa or Awaxawi. Note 

 that the Awatixa at this time recognized dialectic differences with the Hidatsa and that the Mandan tradition 

 of a Hidatsa migration to the Missouri as nonagriculturalists is denied by the Awatixa as applying to them. 



