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Mandan Indian Tribe
Location
Mandan. Probably a corruption of the Dakota word applied to them, Mawatani.
Also called:
A-rach-bo-cu, Hidatsa name (Long, 1791)
As-a-ka-shi, Us-suc-car-shay, Crow
name.
How-mox-tox-sow-es, Hidatsa name (?).
Kanit', Arikara name.
Kwowahtewug,
Ottawa name.
Métutahanke, own name since 1837, after their old village.
Mo-no'-ni-o,
Cheyenne name.
Numakaki, own name prior to 1837, meaning "men," "people."
U-ka'-she, Crow name, meaning "earth houses."
Connections
The Mandan belonged to the Siouan
linguistic stock. Their connections are with the
Tutelo and
Winnebago rather than the nearer
Siouan tribes.
Location
When known to the Whites, the Mandan
were on the same part of the Missouri River as the
Hidatsa, between Heart and Little Missouri Rivers. (See
also
South Dakota.)
Subdivisions and Villages
The division names given by Morgan (1851) appear to have been
those of their former villages and are as follows: Horatamumake, Matonumake,
Seepoosha, Tanatsuka, Kitanemake, Estapa, and Neteahke. In 1804 Lewis and
Clark found two villages in existence, Metutahanke and Ruptari, about 4
miles below the mouth of Knife River.
They were divided socially into two moieties named like those of the
Hidatsa, the Four-Clan Moiety and Three-Clan Moiety, and many of the clans
constituting these bear village names. One of Dr. Lowie's (1917)
informants gave the Prairie-chicken people, Young white-headed Eagle,
People all in a bunch, and Crow people, as clans of the first Moiety; and
the Maxi'‘kina, Tamï'sik, and Nū'ptare as clans of the second. Another
informant gave the following clans altogether:
Si'pucka, Xtaxta'nü'mak',
Village above, Maxáhe, Tamǐ'sik, Seven-different kinds, Hilltop village,
Scattered village, white-bellied mouse people, and Nūptare.
Curtis
(1907-9) and Maximilian (1843) give a Badger clan; Curtis, Red Butte and
Charcoal clans; Maximilian, Bear and Cactus villages, perhaps intended for
clans; and Morgan, Wolf, Good Knife, Eagle, and Flathead clans.
Some of
Lowie's informants substituted other names for Nū'pta, which latter is
also the name of a village.
History
When first visited by the Whites, the Mandan had distinct
traditions of an eastern origin, and they may have come from the neighborhood of
the Winnebago or from the Ohio country. Tradition also affirms that they first
reached the Missouri at the mouth of White River, South Dakota, whence they
moved to Moreau River and thence to Heart River, where the Whites found them.
The first recorded visit to them was by Varendrye in 1738. The nine villages which they had in 1750 were merged
into two by 1776 which were about 4 miles below the mouth of Knife River
when Lewis and Clark visited
them in 1804. In 1837 they were almost destroyed by smallpox, only 31
souls being left out of 1,600, according to one account. In
1845 some Mandan accompanied the Hidatsa to Fort Berthold, others followed
at intervals, and the tribe has continued to reside
there down to the present time, though lands are now allotted to them in
severalty and they are citizens of the United States.
Population
Mooney's (1928) estimate of Mandan population for 1780 is
3,600. In 1804 Lewis and Clark estimated there were 1,250, and in 1837, just
before the great smallpox epidemic, there were supposed to be 1,600. In 1850 the
total number was said to be 150, but in 1852 it had apparently increased to 385.
In 1871 there were 450; in 1877, 420; in 1885, 410; and 1905, 249; while the
census of 1910 returned 209, and the United States Indian Office Report of 1923,
273. The census of 1930 gives 271, and the Indian Office Report for 1937, 345.
Connection in which they have become noted
The Mandan attained wide notoriety among the Whites
(1) from their intimate dealings with the early
White explorers and traders in the upper Missouri region;
(2) from the fact that their customs and
ceremonies were made particular matters of record by Maximilian (1843),
Catlin (1844), and other White visitors;
(3) from the reputation these
Indians acquired of an unusually light skin color and theories of Welsh
or, at least European, origin based upon these characters; and
(4) from
the tragic decimation of the tribe by smallpox as above mentioned. The
name has been adopted as that of a city in North Dakota, the capital of
Morton County.
Additional Resources
Notes About the Book:
Source: The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton, 1953, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Bulletin 145, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
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