Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 23 



terials of unusual uniformity. Temporary campsites found along the 

 rivers reveal pottery complexes characteristic of this older Hidatsa 

 earth lodge culture on the Missouri. Temporary nonagricultural 

 sites are found east and west of the Missouri; permanent sites are 

 found on the lower section of the Sheyenne River where it empties 

 into the Red River and again in the Devils Lake region where evi- 

 dences of agriculture are indicated. It appears that only in the cen- 

 tral portion along the Missouri, around Devils Lake, and in the lower 

 Sheyenne River region, was agriculture regularly practiced by the 

 AwatLxa and Awaxawi. Evidences of occasional agriculture upstream 

 from the mouth of the Knife River is indicated by numerous small 

 storage pits, scapula hoes, and charred corncobs. The corncobs 

 could have been brought in by trade, but it is unlikely that scapula 

 hoes and storage pits would have been used unless some agriculture 

 was practiced. The archeological evidence indicates that agriculture 

 was not important upstream from the Knife River until historic times, 

 but earlier attempts at farming are indicated by numerous temporary 

 sites in that region. 



The late prehistoric and protohistoric locations of the village 

 groups comprising the Hidatsa tribe are pretty well defined by 

 traders and native accounts which can be authenticated by arche- 

 ological record. The Awaxawi were intermediate in position on the 

 Missouri to the Mandan and Awatixa, living in the Painted Woods 

 region as agriculturalists. The Awatixa, though formerly most 

 intimately associated with the other agricultural groups, the Man- 

 dan and Awaxawi, rather than with the nomadic Hidatsa-Crow 

 groups, were by this time in closer associations with the Hidatsa who 

 occupied the north bank of the Knife River and the area upstream 

 from that point. The final separation of the Hidatsa and the River 

 Crow traditionally occurred during this period after a quarrel over 

 the disposal of a buffalo's paunch. The archeological record up- 

 stream along the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, however, would 

 indicate that this Hidatsa-Crow population was composed of numer- 

 ous bands which gradually moved apart as some members took over 

 agriculture while others remained on the Plains permanently as 

 hunters. 



It would appear that even the Hidatsa-proper did not make the 

 decision to settle in earth lodge villages quickly but, rather, were 

 indifferent to agriculture for quite a while. The smallpox epidemic 

 of 1782 and the westward movement of the Assiniboin and Sioux 

 changed the picture on the Missom"i; it was the sedentary peoples 

 who suffered most from smallpox. The more nomadic Hidatsa were 

 compelled to make a decision between reuniting with the River Crow 

 or moving in with their linguistically closer relatives living near the 



