HIDATSA CULTURAL POSITION IN THE NORTHERN 



PLAINS 



No reference to the Hidatsa communities was made in the historic 

 accounts of traders and explorers prior to 1797 when Thompson 

 distinguished them from their immediate neighbors, the Mandan, 

 on the basis of linguistic and minor cultural differences. At this 

 time they were living in earth lodge villages at the mouth of the 

 Knife River. The village of the Hidatsa-proper was on the north 

 bank, the village of the Awatixa was on the south bank at the river's 

 edge, and the village of the Awaxawi was situated a short distance 

 to the south on the spot where the courthouse in the town of Stanton, 

 N. Dak., stands today. By the time of Lewis and Clark — 1804-6 — it 

 was known that the Hidatsa and Crow were closely related 

 linguistically, that they were previously one people, and that they 

 had maintained close social ties even after the Crow had moved out 

 onto the plains west of the Missouri River as nomadic hunters. 



Although these early traders and travelers recorded several migra- 

 tion accounts for the Hidatsa and Crow, some of which are 

 contradictory if one views the Hidatsa as a single unified group, 

 these apparent contradictions tend to disappear if one examines 

 each village group as an independent social unit. One version of 

 Hidatsa-Crow history deals with the Mandan account of first 

 encountering a strange people who appeared on the east bank of 

 the Missouri River at the mouth of Heart River and called across. 

 The Mandan, not understanding their language, said that "they want 

 to cross" or minitadi, by which name the people of Hidatsa village 

 were thereafter known. This version relates how the Minitadi 

 tasted of the Mandan corn, which they liked, and how they agreed 

 to return with their people in 4 days. This lengthened into 4 years 

 at which time the Minitadi and the Crow appeared on the east bank 

 of the Missouri and were ferried across in Mandan buUboats. They 

 lived with the westside Mandan for a short time until a quarrel 

 occurred between the Hidatsa and the Crow, the latter then moving 

 out on the plains to the west as nomads, and the Hidatsa moving 

 northward along the Missouri where they set up separate villages. 



Historical anthropology of these village Indians must take into 

 account general movements of related groups and specific movements 

 of local groups. Mandan and Arikara migration myths tell of their 

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