Food

The staple foods of the Mandan were crops—corn, beans, squash, and sunflower—and buffalo meat. The buffalo hunt was an important event for the entire Man-dan village. Scouts were posted on the grasslands to watch for a big herd. On spotting one, the scouts would report back to the village. Men, women, and children hurriedly made preparations, gathering up bows and arrows, food supplies, and tipis, which they placed on their travois.

Before acquiring horses, which allowed a solo hunter to catch a bison, the Mandan typically hunted in groups. First they would build a trap out of two rows of piled stones or with a fence made of poles and brush. At one end, the trap had a wide opening. At the other, it narrowed, leading to the edge of a cliff or to an enclosure. Everyone except the Buffalo Caller would hide behind the rockpiles or the fences with blankets in hand. The caller, who wore a buffalo skin on his back, would creep on all fours near the grazing herd. He would imitate the cry of a sick buffalo to lure the herd toward the mouth of the trap. When the herd was inside the rows of stones, the other hunters would jump up, shout, and wave their blankets to make the animals stampede. If events went as planned, the frightened buffalo would run toward the narrow end of the trap and over the cliff or into the corral. Then, standing at a safe distance, the Indians would kill the injured beasts with arrows.

After skinning their catch, the Mandan would hold a great feast on the spot, gorging on buffalo steak, liver, kidneys, and bone marrow. What they did not eat, they would preserve by smoking. They would pack up and take every part of the animal back to the village for future use—the meat for food; the hides for tipis, bull boats, shields, bindings, blankets, robes, and moccasins; and the bones and horns for spoons and cups to use with their pottery bowls.

The Mandan hunted other animals as well: deer, elk, antelope, bear, wolf, fox, beaver, rabbit, turtle, and various birds, in short, whatever hunters could track down in the wild. The Mandan also fished in the Missouri River.