Lewis & Clark Trip Day 19: ND II (5/26/2021)

Wednesday, May 26, 2021 (continued)

Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site (1974)
near Stanton, ND, at the site of Hidatsa villages

A small Bull Boat, made from the hide
of one bull buffalo/bison (KSS)

A replica (1997, by Ken Woody) of a warrior's
leather shirt that is believed was given to
Meriwether Lewis during the expedition, and
is now in the Peabody Museum at Yale
University in New Haven, CT (KSS)

More gardening tools (KSS)

Knife River gets its name from the flint
found in the area that was widely traded (KSS)

Another cross-section of an earth lodge cache,
this one including a bag of beans and squash (KSS)

The best-constructed replica earth lodge we have seen

Note the forked branch to hold
the horizontal timbers (KSS)

Earth lodge construction seen
from the inside (KSS)

Replica interior of the earth lodge (these replicas always had
fresh ashes in the fire pit so that it smelled authentic!)

A section for the #1 horse who was allowed to live inside

The kitchen area that included the under-floor cache
for storing food for the winter

The painted leather parfleche/storage container (KSS)

Behind one of the lodge poles is a shrine
where sacred objects were kept, including
weapons of war, and the space between
the shrine and the pole was also sacred

The family painted buffalo/bison hide that would depict
heroic events and stories of the tribe of family members

Knife River National Historic Site: Lewis & Clark
Historical Marker

Oops, a downed tree on the trail to the village sites

The depressions indicating earth lodges are not as clear
at Awatixa Xi'e, the lower Hidatsa village

The ground, even on the path, was
covered with burrow holes

We noticed that some holes were covered with dirt; a park
ranger explained that the burrowing animals have become
pests and not only are they destroying the replica Hidatsa
garden, they are disturbing still-buried artifacts, thus
they are trying to control where the burrowers live (KSS)

Kent stands in a depression of one of the earth lodges of
Awatixa Village, where Sakakawea was living when
Lewis and Clark hired her husband and her as interpreters

The Knife River (KSS)

*On 8/11/1806, on the return trip, William Clark climbed a high butte as a lookout when waiting for Meriwether Lewis to rejoin the Corps of Discovery.*

The summit of Crow Flies High Butte near New Town, ND

Today's view of the Missouri River is instead an extension
of Lake Sakakawea created by Garrison Dam (1947-1953)

Four Bears Memorial Bridge (2005) crosses the
Missouri River/Lake Sakakawea within the
Fort Berthold Reservation, home of the
consolidated Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation

Astragalus missouriensis/Missouri Milkvetch

Crow Flies High Butte: Lewis & Clark Historical Marker

New Town, ND was developed in 1950 as a replacement site
for residents of all the towns to be flooded by the creation
of Lake Sakakawea by Garrison Dam; now there are active
oil pumps, like these "dipping donkeys" all over the area

*On 8/12/1806, on the return trip, the Corps of Discovery that had divided on 7/3/1806, now reunited at a bay just above the mouth of the Little Knife River.*

Distant view of what is now called Reunion Bay,
near New Town. ND

View of a square butte beyond where Reunion Bay joins
Lake Sakakawea; the original site of the Corps of
Discovery reunion is below water (KSS)

Although now the accepted spelling of her name is Sakagawea, in North Dakota they use the spelling of Sakakawea, as it is the closest to the Hidatsa word for 'Bird Woman'. However, the Shoshone claim  because she was from the Shoshone, that her name was Sacajawea, meaning boat launcher or puller. It is believed that when she was captured by the Hidatsa at about age 12, they transliterated her name into their own language. At about age 13, she was sold or traded to Touissant Charbonneau. This makes Sakagawea either 15 or 16 at the start of the Corps of Discovery expedition.

Next: Lewis & Clark Trip Day 20.