Who Are the Hidatsa?
The Hidatsa (meaning "willows," referencing their riverside homeland) are a Siouan-speaking people of the Missouri River valley in present-day North Dakota. Today numbering approximately 2,500-3,000 enrolled members as part of the **Three Affiliated Tribes** with the Mandan and Arikara, the Hidatsa share cultural similarities with their Mandan neighbors—earth lodge villages, intensive agriculture, and the trade center lifestyle. They are perhaps best known through **Buffalo Bird Woman** (Maxidiwiac), whose detailed narratives recorded by anthropologist Gilbert Wilson in the early 20th century provide the most comprehensive account of traditional Plains village life. Like the Mandan, the Hidatsa suffered catastrophic losses from the 1837 smallpox epidemic and later dam construction that flooded their best lands.
Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden
**Buffalo Bird Woman** (Maxidiwiac, c. 1839-1932) provided anthropologist Gilbert Wilson with extraordinarily detailed accounts of Hidatsa life, published as **"Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden"** (1917) and other works. Born just after the devastating 1837 epidemic, she lived through the transition from traditional village life to reservation confinement, remembering and articulating a way of life that had already passed. Her descriptions of Hidatsa agriculture are unparalleled: techniques for clearing fields, planting corn in hills, cultivating beans and squash, harvesting and storage. She detailed not just methods but meanings—songs sung while working, the spiritual relationships with crops, women's ownership and expertise. Buffalo Bird Woman also described earth lodge construction, cooking methods, clothing production, and the full cycle of village life. Her narratives, along with those of her brother **Wolf Chief** and son **Goodbird**, comprise the most complete ethnographic record of any Plains village culture.
Sacagawea's People
**Sacagawea**, the Lemhi Shoshone woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark, lived among the Hidatsa as a captive before her famous journey. Around 1800, Hidatsa raiders captured her during a war expedition against the Shoshone; she was brought to their villages and eventually sold or gambled to French-Canadian trader Toussaint Charbonneau. When Lewis and Clark wintered near the Hidatsa villages in 1804-1805, they hired Charbonneau as interpreter partly because of Sacagawea's knowledge of western geography and Shoshone language. The Lewis and Clark journals provide valuable early descriptions of Hidatsa village life, noting their agricultural productivity, trade activities, and relationships with the Mandan. The expedition's positive reception reflected the Hidatsa's position as trade center hosts, accustomed to visitors from distant peoples.
The Nuptadi, Awatixa, and Awaxawi
The Hidatsa comprised three semi-independent groups, each with distinct origin traditions and village locations: the **Hidatsa-proper** (Nuptadi), **Awatixa**, and **Awaxawi**. Though sharing language and culture, each group maintained separate village sites along the Missouri and Knife Rivers, united by kinship, ceremony, and common defense but preserving distinct identities. The 1837 smallpox epidemic devastated all three groups; survivors consolidated at Like-a-Fishhook Village with Mandan refugees. This consolidation, while necessary for survival, blurred traditional distinctions. The related **Crow** people separated from the Hidatsa perhaps 500 years ago, migrating west to become nomadic buffalo hunters while Hidatsa remained village farmers. Despite separation, Crow and Hidatsa maintained connections, recognizing shared linguistic and cultural heritage.
Contemporary Hidatsa Nation
Today's Hidatsa are enrolled members of the **Three Affiliated Tribes** (MHA Nation: Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. The **Garrison Dam** (completed 1953) flooded 155,000 acres of reservation land—including Like-a-Fishhook Village site, the best agricultural bottomlands, and most community infrastructure. Families were forcibly relocated to less productive uplands; the trauma of this "second flood" (after the epidemic devastation) remains vivid in community memory. Oil development in the Bakken Formation has brought economic resources but also challenges: rapid development, social disruption, and environmental concerns. The Hidatsa language is critically endangered; revitalization programs work to document and teach it. Cultural programs preserve knowledge recorded by Buffalo Bird Woman and continue traditions including corn cultivation, earth lodge reconstruction, and ceremonies. The Three Affiliated Tribes exemplify how distinct peoples—Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara—can maintain separate identities while building shared governance following historical catastrophes.
References
- Wilson, G. L. (1917). Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden. Minnesota Historical Society Press.
- Bowers, A. W. (1965). Hidatsa Social and Ceremonial Organization. Bureau of American Ethnology.
- Meyer, R. W. (1977). The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri. University of Nebraska Press.
- Gilman, C., & Schneider, M. J. (1987). The Way to Independence: Memories of a Hidatsa Indian Family. Minnesota Historical Society Press.