Taylor Bluff Village: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site
Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2000. Taylor Bluff Village: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 501366. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Midwest Regional Office, Omaha, Nebraska / CRIS-CL Database
The Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site is located in central North Dakota, sixty miles north of Bismarck and adjacent to the town of Stanton. Its location near the Missouri and Knife Rivers has influenced its use and character, and it continues to aid in interpretation of Hidatsa Indian tribal life. Taylor Bluff Village is a 3.9-acre component landscape found in the northern part of the broader Knife River Indian Villages cultural landscape. Many features characterize the Knife River Indian Villages landscape, which has been shaped and modified by human activity and occupancy. Terraces formed by the two rivers provide a variety of individual vernacular landscapes used by the Hidatsa for village sites, hunting grounds, cemeteries, ceremonial sites, and agricultural zones. The various village sites express a continuity of land use, vegetation, waterways, and natural features. The Arikara, a Hidatsa subgroup, established Taylor Bluff Village in 1837 after the Sioux raided Sakakawea Village. The site has an elongated U-shaped fortification ditch opening to the southwest, toward the adjacent Knife River. Earthlodge depressions are visible within the enclosure in both cultivated and uncultivated areas. In addition, evidence of travois trails, cache pits, and fortification ditches define the site. The period of significance for the Taylor Bluff Village is 1834 to 1845, representing the period of occupation. This is within the period of significance of the parent landscape (CE 1000-1845). It is also part of the existing National Register Nomination for a discontiguous archeological district that focuses on a period of significance between 5,000 BC to 1861. Along with other village sites, the earthlodge depressions and extensive ethnohistoric documentation make this a unique site on the plains. The village also illustrates the role of the Hidatsa in regional trade networks, the development of the fur trade, and exploration of the American west. Taylor Bluff is particularly notable for representing the later period of occupation and interactions. Despite its later date, it is not as pristine as the other sites because much of the village has eroded into the river. Overall, the condition of the cultural landscape is good. Based on inventory and site visits conducted by the CLI team, the inventory units were found to retain integrity in location, setting, feeling, and association to the time of Hidatsa occupation. Evidence to reinforce the integrity can be found in the many journal descriptions and artist renderings that date back to the fur trade era. Although the Hidatsa earth lodges are no longer extant, the imprints left on the landscape provide modern visitors a sense of place similar to that experienced by traders, explorers, and artists who frequented the villages. The majority of features documented for the cultural landscape inventory are previously recorded surface archeological features, studied by archeologists for National Register documentation. The landscape provides a contextual setting through which to view other historical, cultural, and physical developments of the plains. The ground-surface expressions are sufficient to convey the physical spatial organization of the society and the relationships between the various villages and natural settings. Additionally, the landscape encompasses and protects historic use areas; some that are archeological, like travois trails and cemeteries, and others where the historic use is no longer evident. The landscape preserves the open character even though the historic land uses are not intact.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2000-01-12
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- KNRI , MWR
- Keywords
- Agriculture, Archeological District, archeological features, Archeology-Historic-Aboriginal, Archeology-Prehistoric, Arikara Village, art, Awatixa, Big Hidatsa, Bismarck, burial grounds, ceremonial sites, Earthlodge, Epidemics, Ethnic Heritage-Native American, Ethnographic/Traditional Landscape, Ethnohistory of Indigenous American Populations, Exploration-Settlement, Flood Plain, Fortification, Fur Trade, Great Plains, Hidatsa Tribe, Hunting Grounds, Interpretive Landscape, Knife River, Linear Mound, Lower Hidatsa, Mandans, Mercer County, midden, Missouri River, Native American, North Dakota, Plains Farmers, Post-Archaic and Prehistoric Developments, prehistoric archeology, Sakakawea, Seasonal Village, Sioux, Stanton, Taylor Bluff, Terrace, The Early Peopling of North America, The Northern Plains, trade, Travois Trails, Vernacular Landscape, village site