484 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



Its presence in these Mandan sites at this early date suggests that 

 overland contacts between the Missouri and the Red River of the 

 North existed long before the first Hidatsa-Crow groups settled on 

 the Missouri. Extensive cultural exchange of other traits between 

 the two areas continued until this westward movement of Hidatsa- 

 Crow was terminated with the final arrival of the Mirokac. 



Continued cultural borrowing between earth lodge peoples living 

 along the Missouri River and these western tributaries of the Red 

 River of the North even after the abandonment of the eastern area 

 by the Hidatsa-Crow, is indicated by the many common traits 

 of the historic Cheyenne of the same general region as noted by Strong 

 in his excavations at the Biesterfeldt site. This site, however, shows 

 closer cultural ties to the historic Arikara than to the Mandan or 

 Hidatsa. 



Thus, the record from native traditions, accounts of early discov- 

 erers, and archeology are in general agreement that the various 

 Hidatsa and Crow bands reached the Plains from the western edge 

 of the Woodlands as independent and separate groups. They came 

 prior to the first White penetration of the Missouri Valley and after 

 the Mandan had already become firmly established there. This 

 penetration of the Plains seems to have been a friendly one as far as 

 the Mandan are concerned; we find no mention in their traditions of 

 any conflicts, and the earliest Hidatsa villages were not fortified. 

 The earlier Mandans, with their rectangular lodge tradition, had 

 built villages as far upstream as Clarks Creek near the mouth of 

 Knife River. There may have been some settlements farther up- 

 stream, for the "Sacred Lodge of the 01 d- Woman- Who-Never-Dies," 

 was of this tradition (of which the Hidatsa had no memories when this 

 study was made). 



We must assume that the various Hidatsa groups came to the 

 Missouri Valley a few at a time. They settled above the mouth of 

 the Heart River in areas abandoned by the Mandan as they moved 

 from an independent village system to a more centralized tribal orga- 

 nization and built the large, long-occupied, and strongly fortified 

 Slant, Motsiff, Scattered, Boley, Larson, and Double-ditch villages. 

 Dialectic differences between these west-side communities of Nuitadi 

 Mandans at the Heart River had disappeared until the later arrival 

 of a small southern branch of Awigaxa Mandans, who had remained 

 near the Grand River until after A.D. 1700, and a somewhat larger 

 group known as the Nuptadi Mandan who had built at Double-ditch 

 site prior to that date, they, too, coming north relatively late in 

 prehistoric times. By A.D. 1700 the Mandan in the villages listed 

 above were developing a strong tribal organization which was composed 

 of the Nuptadi and Nuitadi linguistic groups. The Awigaxa Mandan, 



