22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



According to both Awatixa and Mandan traditions, once the original 

 populations were established, other related groups moved to the region 

 and joined them. There is much archeological evidence in the earth 

 lodge sites of the area to support the general outlines of tribal histories 

 as given by native informants. Will (1946) has dated certain sites of 

 the Heart Kiver region as representing an early agricultural popula- 

 tion at the Huff site. On the basis of changes of frequencies of pot- 

 tery types, I have shown that a continuous cultural development 

 occurred in that region even predating the Huff site (dated as 1485- 

 1543) and continuing to the historic period (Bowers, MS.). Typo- 

 logical differences exist between these earlier traditional Mandan sites 

 and those believed by both tribes to have been occupied by the various 

 Hidatsa village groups. On the oldest identified horizons, the Mandan 

 sites show many middle Mississippi cultural traits. The Hidatsa 

 show stronger Woodland influences. Mandan pottery had a high 

 frequency of plain or polished (body) wares while Hidatsa pottery had 

 a high frequency of check-stamping and cord-roughening. These 

 differences were less pronounced in the historical period sites. Man- 

 dan village sites show fixed lodge arrangements with an open circle or 

 ceremonial area within the village, a specialized ceremonial lodge with 

 structural features of the older rectangular lodges, and the common 

 use of bastions. The Hidatsa never preserved a fixed ceremonial area 

 within the village, nor is there reference to lodge orientation within 

 the camp area. Even in historic times, the Hidatsa had no cere- 

 monial or tribal lodge for their ceremonies. Nor do those Hidatsa 

 sites known to have been occupied prior to the smallpox epidemic of 

 1782 show well-defined fortifications, although the Mandan were 

 building strongly fortified villages before A.D. 1500. 



Trade sherds appearing in Mandan sites after 1550 indicate that 

 the first Hidatsa groups, probably the Awatixa and their closest 

 Mountain Crow relatives, reached the Missouri about that time or a 

 little later. Awatixa pottery and culture in general were influenced 

 by the Mandan far more than were Mandan cultural traits influenced 

 by the AwatLxa, indicating that the first contacts were made by an 

 Awatixa invading group fewer in number than the contemporary 

 Mandan. That contacts were not entirely broken between the various 

 Hidatsa-Crow groups is indicated by the close similarity in their 

 languages. If we assume a distribution of Hidatsa-Crow groups in 

 accord with their traditions (from the Red River and its western tri- 

 butaries westward in the headwaters region of the Sheyenne and James 

 Rivers, the Turtle Mountains, the southern loop of the Mouse River 

 and onto the Missouri upstream from Washburn, N. Dak., thence 

 westward onto the Little Missouri to its headwaters and the Yellow- 

 stone River to the Powder River), we have an area which reveals ma- 



