Traces: Early Peoples of North Dakota

Handy-Marchello, Barbara; Swenson, Fern

From the Foreword: "...In these pages you will find myriad examples of human ingenuity adapting to an often-unforgiving environment. Long winters with below zero temperatures and record snowfalls several feet in depth couple with summers of devastating droughts lasting several years are apparent even today. Unpredictable climate changes influenced the wanderings of the primary food source, huge bison herds rumbling across the Northern Plains searching for fresh pastures. My Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara ancestors used everything at their disposal to provide sustenance for their family and tribe, fashioning tools and weapons of stone, bone, and wood. Every part of a bison carcass was used in some way. Knife River flint that was easily fashioned into razor-sharp arrow and spear points became a valuable commodity to many tribes. Our access to the flint quarries gave us a distinct advantage in tribe with the nomadic peoples who visited our earthlodge villages near the mouth of the Knife River. Native people understood the need to supplement their diet with the nutrients found in plant matter. Consequently, my people of the earthlodges found our niche in cultivating corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers on the fruitful bottomlands of the Missouri River trench. The excess harvest we used to establish a trade network that brought prosperity and access to trade goods from both coasts. Innovative practices like the atlatl and other technologies from far flung locales we incorporated into our culture..." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the State Historic Preservation Office, State Historical Society of North Dakota, administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P18AF00031).

Traces: Early Peoples of North Dakota

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