Hidatsa Women and the Earthlodges of the Upper Missouri River

The earthlodge at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site is 40 feet across. A timber frame holds up the earth and grass of the mound; the doorway is two rows of upright logs roofed with logs and earth. NPS photo.

In traditional Hidatsa society, women built, owned and maintained the earthlodge, or awadi.

Building a lodge

Women gathered the building materials through the year, hauling heavy loads in the season when snow covered the Northern Plains and made it easier. The women of a clan then built the lodge together, under the direction of an older woman who held the sacred and practical knowledge of how it was done.

They began by setting four cottonwood posts, then built them up with a circular framework of logs, willow branches, dried grass and sod. The lodge could be finished in just 6 to 10 days, and it housed between ten and twenty people, often sisters and their families, several generations together.

Big Hidatsa Village

Big Hidatsa Village, founded around 1600 and abandoned in 1845, held more than 100 earthlodges. Shallow hollows in the ground still mark where they stood, helping visitors picture the layout, size and growth of the community.

Circular depressions mark the sites of earthlodges at Big Hidatsa Village; travois trails lead away from the village at upper left. The village remains a place of spiritual, cultural and archeological importance. NPS photo.

Today

The reconstructed earthlodge at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site helps visitors understand the lodges, and a garden and drying racks recall the farming developed by the Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara on the Northern Plains. Parts of the matriarchal order, the clan system and the bond with the land continue in Hidatsa society today, and the voices of Hidatsa women remain vital to understanding the history of this landscape.

Learn more

• Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site
• Videos, including Ranger Darian's tour of the inside of the reconstructed earthlodge
• The People: Mandan/Hidatsa flute player and storyteller Keith Bear brings the culture of the Upper Missouri to life in music and story
• National Park Service: women's history, Indigenous heritage, cultural landscapes

Sources

• National Park Service, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, "Hidatsa Women & Earthlodges of the Upper Missouri River." https://www.nps.gov/articles/knri-hidatsa-women-earthlodges-cultural-landscape.htm