Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 481 



River continued to set the peripheral posts near the edge of the lodge 

 as uprights, without the atutish section, until protohistoric times 

 at the Rygh site. This Mandan-Hidatsa earth lodge type did not 

 appear in the south until somewhat later at the Swan Creek site, 

 upper horizon, and the Cheyenne River and Leavensworth sites. 



In 1929, while excavating at the Larson site north of Bismarck, 

 N. Dak., the field party from the Logan Museum excavated an earth 

 lodge in the oldest and unfortified section of the site which showed 

 that the atutish area was characteristic of their lodges at this time. 

 Further excavations in the Hensler or Van Costing site again re- 

 vealed that the leaners had been set out 5-6 feet from the peripheral 

 posts. Tree-ring dating for the Mandan village at the Larson site 

 by Mr, WiU showed occupation between A.D. 1615 and 1641. The 

 Hensler site, although somewhat more recent in age, was still clearly 

 precontact and in the Mandan tradition. A ceremonial lodge north 

 of the "open circle" of the Hensler site had the traditional double 

 row of eight central posts, a flat front facing the center of the open 

 circle, a short entryway, roughly parallel long sides, and a rounded 

 back that consisted of uprights set in slightly from the vertical. 

 This lodge's upright back had been rebuilt by extending it back 

 and forth several times. 



Unlike the Mandan, who have traditions of once living in large 

 rectangular lodges and who think of their ceremonial lodge as roughly 

 rectangular rather than circular, the Hidatsa have no traditions of 

 earth-covered lodges other than with the four-post frame, heavy 

 peripheral posts, and the atutish area, or the small eagle trapping 

 lodge set up on a four-post foundation like a tipi. This would indi- 

 cate to me that the Hidatsa did not come onto the Missouri River 

 to live until after 1615, as a minimum date. By this time, the rec- 

 tangular lodge was no longer used as a residence by the Heart River 

 or Northern Mandan. The Awatixa who have traditions of longest 

 residence on the Missouri refer to the first lodges built there as having 

 the atutish as described in the myth of the "Sacred Arrows" (see 

 p. 305) when twins were ripped from their mother by a monster, one 

 becoming known as Atutish or "Edge-of-the-Lodge," which is that 

 section of the earth lodge extending from the peripheral posts to the 

 wall where things were stored. 



Some have thought that the Hidatsa came from the prairies as 

 nomads, settled with the Mandan, and took over their culture in 

 a matter of a few years. Reexamination of Hidatsa traditions, which 

 I analyzed for this study in 1932 and 1933, and new information at 

 hand on the archeology of the Northern Plains confirm native tradi- 

 tions of separate and independent migrations of the various Hidatsa 

 and Crow groups coming to the Missouri at different times. When 



