There were deer and bison. People hunted and farmed. Big families lived together. They stored food in clay pots. And they kept horses.
This was life at Knife River Indian Villages. It’s a National Historic Site (NHS). It sits by the Knife and Missouri rivers. That’s in Stanton, North Dakota. Congress created the site on October 26, 1974. Knife River Indian Villages NHS is 50 years old!
The oldest village is from the 1500s. That’s when the Hidatsa people settled by the Missouri River. They built earth lodges. Those homes were made of earth and wood. Women built them. Families of 10–20 people lived inside. The lodges had a fire pit. The smoke went out a hole in the roof. The fire was for heat and cooking.
The Hidatsa got water from the river. They used it for crops. Those included corn, squash, sunflower, and beans. People also traded there. They traded horses and furs. In 1804, explorers got to Knife River Villages. They were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They met Sacagawea. Together they went to the West.
The at Knife River lasted until the 1830s. Then smallpox got there. That is a disease. Many of the Hidatsa died. Others moved away. The earth lodges no longer exist. Yet there is a . It shows what the home looked like.
Albert LeBeau leads Knife River Indian Villages NHS. “The earth lodge is built how a house would be set up when people were there,” he said. LeBeau said people enjoy visiting. And he described the site’s purpose. It is “to protect the Hidatsa villages.”
Knife River Indian Villages had a big birthday. There were speakers and storytellers. Tribal leaders came too. They shared music and dances. Today, the Hidatsa are in MHA Nation. That’s a group of three tribes.
LeBeau called the future of Knife River Indian Villages “bright.”
By Diana Richard
Updated October 25, 2024, 5:00 P.M. (ET)
