Visiting Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, North Dakota

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Not all plains Indians were warlike and aggressive like the Sioux, Cheyenne and Commanche. The Hidatsa were basically a peaceful tribe (though engaging in the usual raids on other tribes) who hunted and mainly farmed sticking close to the Missouri River and its tributaries. They did not engage in the Indian Wars and were decimated by an 1837 smallpox epidemic then forced onto the reservation in 1885. Located in the Upper Missouri River Valley, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site preserves the sites of three Hidatsa summer villages alongside the Knife River. The Missouri River is nearby. Excavations found evidence these villages had been used for 500 years prior to the white man’s arrival and additional evidence points to 11,000 years of human activity. Some of the artifacts found are displayed in the visitor’s center. Bits and pieces of pottery, dolls, beadwork, stone hammers and axe, bone fishhooks, moccasins and other items reflecting a life and society long since past. Outside the visitor’s center is a recreation of an earth lodge that visitors can enter and get a feel of what it was like. The park is small and not really much to see concerning the villages. The sites are marked. There are two long hiking trails close to the rivers so some nice scenery. Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site is off the beaten path and does not seem to attract many visitors.