MANDAN

The Mandan (pronounced MAN-dun) were among the earliest Native Americans on the Great Plains. By 1400, they had migrated westward from the Ohio River or Great Lakes country, breaking off from other Siouan-speaking peoples. They settled along the Missouri River, first near the mouth of the White River, territory now part of South Dakota; then, following the Missouri northward, they eventually settled near the mouth of the Heart River, in present-day North Dakota. They lived in the latter location, near the Big Bend of the Missouri, when non-Indians first made contact with them in the 1700s.

The Mandan lived in permanent villages and farmed. Like their immediate neighbors along the Missouri—the HIDATSA to the north and ARIKARA to the south—the Mandan are sometimes referred to as PRAIRIE INDIANS. But since they ventured from their villages at least once a year to hunt buffalo on the open grasslands, the Mandan and other Missouri River tribes are usually classified as PLAINS INDIANS. On acquiring horses in the mid-1700s, the Mandan traveled even farther in search of the huge buffalo herds.