Search for Free 150,000+ Essays

Find more results for this search now!
CLICK the BUTTON to the RIGHT!

Need a Brand New Custom Essay Now?  click here

The MANDAN INDIANS Research Paper and History

Uploaded by tyson_626 on Feb 28, 2005

The MANDAN INDIANS

The Mandan Indians were a small, peaceful tribe located at the mouth of the Knife River on the Missouri near present day Bismarck, North Dakota. The Mandan were most known for their friendliness and their homes, called earth lodges. The women of the Mandan tribe tended their gardens, prepared food, and maintained lodges while the men spent their time hunting or seeking spiritual knowledge. The Mandan Indians performed many ceremonies such as the Buffalo Dance and the Okipa Ceremony that have been the center of great interest to many historians. The Mandan are also an important part of history because Lewis and Clark spent their first winter with these people and met Sacagawea, who helped guide them for the rest of their journey west.

Mandan villages were the center of the social, spiritual, and economic lives of the Mandan Indians. Villages were strategically located on bluffs overlooking the river for defense purposes, limiting attacks to one land approach. The Mandan lived in earth lodges, which are extremely large, round huts that are 15 feet high and 40-60 feet in diameter. Each hut had a vestibule entrance, much like the pattern of an Eskimo igloo, and a square hole on top, which served as a smokestack. Each earth lodge housed 10-30 people and their belongings, and villages contained 50-120 earth lodges. The frame of an earth lodge was made from tree trunks, which were covered with criss-crossed willow branches. Over the branches they placed dirt and sod, which coined the term earth lodge. This type of construction made the roofs strong enough to support people on nights of good weather. The floors of earth lodges were made of dirt and the middle was dug out to make a bench around the outer edge of the lodge. Encompassing the village were stockades of poles as tall as six feet high to prevent enemy attacks. In the middle of a Mandan village was a large, circular, open space that was called the central plaza. In the middle of the plaza was a sacred cedar post that represented the Lone Man, a hero to the Mandan. At the North end of the plaza was the medicine or ceremonial lodge. The arrangement of earth lodges around the central plaza represented the social status of each family. Villagers who had important ceremonial duties were located closer to the plaza than those who were not....

Sign In Now to Read Entire Essay

Not a Member?   Create Your FREE Account »

Comments / Reviews

read full essay >>

Already a Member?   Login Now >

This essay and THOUSANDS of
other essays are FREE at eCheat.

Uploaded by:   tyson_626

Date:   02/28/2005

Category:   History

Length:   6 pages (1,308 words)

Views:   8344

Report this Essay Save Essay
Professionally written essays on this topic:

The MANDAN INDIANS Research Paper and History

  • Plains Indians' Tipi

    plains. Their mobile lifestyle necessitated mobile housing. The tipi was the result. Sometimes misspelled as "teepee", the tipi...

  • Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS)

    Security; Governance Rule of Law & Human Rights; Infrastructure & Natural Resources; Education; Health; Agriculture & Rural Develo...

  • Strategic Plan for Dell

    computer users - and therefore buyers - insist that they will not purchase another Dell computer unless and until Dell provides so...

  • Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai

    In eleven pages this research paper applies this Indian novel to Indian nationalism's historical development during the colonial e...

  • American Indian Sovereignty

    The indigenous peoples of the Americas have suffered long and hard since their juxtaposition of their cultures against those of th...

  • India's Economy Analyzed

    scientific advancements made by India concern their testing of nuclear bombs. This development has resulted in sanctions being iss...

  • What is Hinduism?

    adherents and the West. Features of Hinduism Many Hindus endorse the idea of a transcendent God that exists "beyond the universe,...

  • Daniel K, Richter's Facing East from Indian Country

    text prologue, Richter observes, "The emergence of an aggressively expansionist Euro-American United States... is a problem to be ...

  • Canadian Indian Act

    (Okanagan Indian Band). While it can legitimately be argued that the concept of Indian status was originally intended to "separa...

  • Kwakiutl Indians' Man Eating Bird 'Hokhokw' Mask

    wings of the bird and during the ceremony, the dancers snap the beak closed with a loud clap (Kwakiutl Ceremonial Dance Mask, 2002...

View more professionally written essays on this topic »