BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A nonprofit archaeological group from Denver is digging in North Dakota, looking for clues on how Mandan American Indians lived 500 years ago.
The excavation this month at Chief Looking’s Village in Bismarck is a follow-up to a previous dig in which members of the PaleoCultural Research Group found remains of Mandan homes. The group wants to get a clearer picture of the Mandan lifestyle and earth lodge architecture during the 1500s, Research Director Mark Mitchell told The Bismarck Tribune (https://bit.ly/1GRVGt0 ).
“The houses were well-insulated. All around, you had a great environment,” he said. “You had a flood plain for corn and bison in the uplands. You got river birds, fish, mussels, deer, bison, and they’re growing corn, beans and squash.”
Mitchell estimates that as many as 20,000 Mandan Indians might have lived in the region at one time. There is strong evidence at the site of a healthy regional trade network, he said. Workers have uncovered pottery, stone and other materials from southern Canada, eastern North Dakota, northern South Dakota and Wyoming.
“We expect to find the remains of pottery, tools, animal bones. We can reconstruct diets, how pottery was made,” Mitchell said. “We can look if there were different pottery designs in different houses. We can understand what kind of stone tools they were using at different houses.”
The group plans to remain at the site through next week. Members will then study data and plan reports and lectures for next year.
Funding for the project is coming from the Northern Plains Heritage Area, a National Park Service program, along with money from Colorado State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, the University of Arkansas and the University of Colorado.
___
Information from: Bismarck Tribune, https://www.bismarcktribune.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.