Knife River Indian Villages

The Hidatsa lived here in earthlodge villages for centuries, farming the river bottoms and trading across a network that reached the Pacific and the Gulf - this was a commercial hub long before Europeans arrived. What survives on the ground is subtle: hundreds of circular depressions in the prairie where lodges stood, best read in low light. Lewis and Clark wintered nearby in 1804-05 and it was at these villages that they met Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacagawea, who was then living here after being taken from the Shoshone as a child. Smallpox in 1837 killed a large share of the population and the villages were abandoned. A full-size reconstructed earthlodge stands at the visitor centre.

The main sights

• Hundreds of lodge depressions - circular, best seen in low light.
• A reconstructed earthlodge - full size, at the visitor centre.
• A pre-contact trade hub - reaching the Pacific and the Gulf.
• Where Lewis and Clark met Sacagawea - in the winter of 1804-05.

When to go

May to September; low morning or evening light shows the depressions. Two to three hours.

What to expect

The site reads as an empty field to an unprepared eye - the visitor centre first is essential. Winters are severe and facilities reduce. Mosquitoes are heavy in summer. It is remote.

Nearby

Fort Mandan reconstruction is downriver; Bismarck is south-east.

Key facts