Mandan


The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still reside in the area of the reservation; the rest reside around the United States and in Canada.
The Mandan historically lived along both banks of the Upper Missouri River and two of its tributaries—the Heart and Knife rivers—in present-day North and South Dakota. Speakers of Mandan, a Siouan language, they developed a settled, agrarian culture. They established permanent villages featuring large, round, earth lodges, some in diameter, surrounding a central plaza. Matrilineal families lived in the lodges. The Mandan were a great trading nation, trading especially their large corn surpluses with other tribes in exchange for bison meat and fat. Food was the primary item, but they also traded for horses, guns, and other trade goods.

Population

The Mandan population was 3,600 in the early 18th century. It is estimated to have been 10,000–15,000 before European encounter. Decimated by a widespread smallpox epidemic in 1781, the people had to abandon several villages, and remnants of the Hidatsa also gathered with them in a reduced number of villages. In 1836, there were more than 1,600 full-blood Mandans but, following another smallpox epidemic in 1836–37, this number was estimated to have dropped to 125 by 1838.
In the 20th century, the people began to recover. In the 1990s, 6,000 people were enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes. In the 2010 Census, 1,171 people reported Mandan ancestry. Some 365 of them identified as full-bloods, and 806 had partial Mandan ancestry.

Etymology

The English name Mandan is derived from the French-Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier, Sieur de la Verendrye, who in 1738 heard it as Mantannes from his Assiniboine guides, which call the Mandan Mayádąna. He had previously heard the earth lodge peoples referred to by the Cree as Ouachipouennes, "the Sioux who go underground". The Assiniboine are Siouan speakers. Nearby Siouan speakers had exonyms similar to Mantannes in their languages, for instance, Teton Miwáthaŋni or Miwátąni, Yanktonai Miwátani, Yankton Mawátani or Mąwátanį, Dakota Mawátąna or Mawátadą, etc.
The Mandan have used differing autonyms to refer to themselves: Numakaki was inclusive and not limited to a specific village or band. This name was used before the smallpox epidemic of 1837–1838. Nueta, the name used after this epidemic was originally the name of Mandan villagers living on the west bank of the Missouri River.
The Mandan probably used Nųmą́khų́·ki / Rųwą́ʔka·ki to refer to a general tribal entity. Later, this word fell to disuse and instead two divisions' names were used, Nuweta or Ruptare. Later, the term Nų́ʔetaa / Rų́ʔeta was extended to refer to a general tribal entity. The name Mi-ah´ta-nēs recorded by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden in 1862 reportedly means "people on the river bank", but this may be a folk etymology.
Various other terms and alternate spellings that occur in the literature include: Mayátana, Mayátani, Mąwádanį, Mąwádąδį, Huatanis, Mandani, Wahtani, Mantannes, Mantons, Mendanne, Mandanne, Mandians, Maw-dân, Meandans, les Mandals, Me-too´-ta-häk, Numakshi, Rųwą́'kši, Wíhwatann, Mevatan, Mevataneo. Gloria Jahoda in Trail of Tears states that they also call themselves the "Pheasant people". George Catlin said the Mandans

Language

The Mandan language or Nų́ų́ʔetaa íroo belongs to the Siouan language family. It was initially thought to be closely related to the languages of the Hidatsa and the Crow. However, since the Mandan language has been in contact with Hidatsa and Crow for many years, the exact relationship between Mandan and other Siouan languages has been obscured. For this reason, linguists classify Mandan most often as a separate branch of the Siouan family.
Mandan has two main dialects: Nuptare and Nuetare. Only the Nuptare variety survived into the 20th century, and all speakers were bilingual in Hidatsa. Linguist Mauricio Mixco of the University of Utah has been involved in fieldwork with remaining speakers since 1993., there were only six fluent speakers of Mandan still alive., programs in local schools encourage students' learning the language.
The Mandan and their language received much attention from European Americans, in part because their lighter skin color caused speculation they were of European origin. In the 1830s, Prince Maximilian of Wied spent more time recording Mandan over all other Siouan languages and additionally prepared a comparison list of Mandan and Welsh words. The theory of the Mandan-Welsh connection was also supported by George Catlin, but researchers have found no evidence of such ancestry.
Mandan has different grammatical forms that depend on the sex of the addressee. Questions asked of men must use the suffix -oʔša while the suffix -oʔrą is used when asking of women. Likewise the indicative suffix is -oʔs when addressing men and -oʔre when addressing women, and also for imperatives: -ta, -rą. Mandan, like many other North American languages, has elements of sound symbolism in their vocabulary. A sound often denotes smallness/less intensity, denotes medium-ness, denotes largeness/greater intensity:
  • síre "yellow"
  • šíre "tawny"
  • xíre "brown"
  • sró "tinkle"
  • xró "rattle"

    History

Origins and early history

The exact origins and early history of the Mandan are unknown. Early studies by linguists gave evidence that the Mandan language may have been closely related to the language of the Ho-Chunk or Winnebago people of present-day Wisconsin. Scholars theorize the Mandans' ancestors may have settled in the Wisconsin area at one time. This idea is possibly confirmed in their oral history, which refers to their having come from an eastern location near a lake.
Some Ethnologists and scholars studying the Mandan subscribe to the theory that, like other Siouan-speaking people, they originated in the area of the mid-Mississippi River and the Ohio River valleys in present-day Ohio. If this was the case, the Mandan would have migrated north into the Missouri River Valley and its tributary the Heart River in present-day North Dakota. That is where Europeans first encountered the historical tribe. This migration is believed to have occurred possibly as early as the 7th century but probably between 1000 CE and the 13th century, after the cultivation of maize was adopted. It was a period of a major climatic shift, creating warmer, wetter conditions that favored their agricultural production.
After their arrival on the banks of the Heart River, the Mandan constructed several villages, the largest of which were at the mouth of the river. Archeological evidence and ground imaging radar have revealed changes in the defensive boundaries of these villages over time. The people built new ditches and palisades circumscribing smaller areas as their populations reduced.
What was known as Double Ditch Village was located on the east bank of the Missouri River, north of where present-day Bismarck developed. It was occupied by the Rupture Mandan for nearly 300 years. Today the site has depressions that are evidence of their lodges and smaller ones where they created cache pits to store dehydrated corn. The name comes from two defensive trenches built outside the area of the lodges. Construction of the fortifications here and at other locations along the Missouri has been found to have correlated to periods of drought, when peoples would have raided each other for food.
At some point during this time, the Hidatsa people also moved into the region. They also spoke a Siouan language. Mandan tradition states that the Hidatsa were a nomadic tribe until their encounter with the Mandan, who taught them to build stationary villages and cultivate agriculture. The Hidatsa continued to maintain amicable relations with the Mandan and constructed villages north of them on the Knife River.
Later the Pawnee and Arikara moved from the Republican River north along the Missouri River. They were Caddoan language speakers, and the Arikara were often early competitors with the Mandan, although both were horticulturalists. They built a settlement known as Crow Creek village on a bluff above the Missouri. The modern town of Chamberlain, South Dakota developed about eleven miles south of here.
The Mandan were divided into bands. The Nup'tadi was the largest linguistic group. The other bands were the Is'tope, Ma'nana'r, Nu'itadi, and the Awi'ka-xa / Awigaxa. The Nup'tadi and Nu'itadi lived on both banks of the Missouri River, while the Awigaxa lived further upstream at the Painted Woods.
The bands all practiced extensive farming, which was carried out by the women, including the drying and processing of corn. The Mandan-Hidatsa settlements, called the "Marketplace of the Central Plains", were major hubs of trade in the Great Plains Indian trading networks. Crops were exchanged, along with other goods that traveled from as far as the Pacific Northwest Coast. Investigation of their sites on the northern Plains have revealed items traceable as well to the Tennessee River, Florida, the Gulf Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard.
The Mandan gradually moved upriver, and consolidated in present-day North Dakota by the fifteenth century. From 1500 to about 1782, the Mandan reached the height of their population and influence. Their villages showed increasing densities as well as stronger fortifications, for instance at Huff Village. It had 115 large lodges with more than 1,000 residents.
The bands did not often move along the river until the late 18th century, after their populations plummeted due to smallpox and other epidemics.