F. V. Hayden on the Mandan Indians. 57 



terate scrofulous affections have been radically cured by using 

 ths of the brine and motber-Iye under my direction. 

 In conclusion I may remark that the inflammable gas alluded 

 consists essentially of ' marsh gas' (C^H^), with some carbonic 



Art. VI.— .4 Sketch of the Mandan Indians, luith some Observa- 

 tions ilhistratinrj the Grammatical Structure of their Language ; 

 by Dr. F. V. Hayden.* 



The Indians of the Missouri valley are divided into the no- 

 madic and stationary tribes. The first class includes by far the 

 greater number, who live mostly by the results of the chase, 

 occupying skin tents and moving about from place to place, as 

 their caprice or physical wants may dictate. Of the latter class, 

 the Minnetarees, Arickaras, and Mandans are the best examples. 



The Minnetarees or Gros Ventrees, as they are called by the 

 Canadian Voyageurs, reside in a village of dirt lodges, near Fort 

 Berthold, in lat. 47° 30', Ion. 102°. The village is surrounded 

 by a rude stockade formed of cotton-wood logs, about fifteen feet 

 in height, placed in the earth in an upright position. These 

 Indians raise corn, beans, pumpkins, &c., to a considerable extent, 

 even more than they need for their own support. They now 

 number from 600 to 800 souls, but are decreasing slowly from 

 disease and other causes. 



The Arickaras or Eees occupy a village near Fort Clarke, lat. 

 47° 10', Ion. 10L°, very similar to that of the Minnetarees. They 

 also cultivate the bottom lands along the Missouri quite snccess- 

 fiiily, and in this way add largely to their means of comfort and 

 support. The number of people comprising this tribe at the 

 present time is about 650, men, women and children. 

 . The Mandans or Mi-akh-ta-nis, " people on the bank" (of the 

 ^iver), as they call themselves, must have resided on the banks 

 cf the Missouri at a very remote period, perhaps not near their 

 present residence, but in several places along the river. It is 

 aiao probable that if they migrated at all, they came from a 

 southern direction, as the sites of different villages of very an- 

 cient date are seen along the Missouri, as low down as the pres- 

 ent boundary between the United States and the Dakota country, 

 ^me of these antique ruins are said to have been Arickara vil- 



te to the Ethnograp1"y'aiid'']Philo™gVof the Indian Tribes of the Missouri Tal- 

 Jy- j^jow m course of publication by tlie American Philosophical Society, Phila- 



■^«- JocR. Sci.-Sbcos© Series, Vol. XXXIT, Ko. 10O.-JtJtT, 1862. 



