We lived in a village of earth mound lodges on the high bluffs of the Missouri River We called it Like a Fishhook Village for it was built upon a sharp bend One side of our settlement was protected by the mighty river The other side faced the vast open prairie and was fenced off with stout posts a stockade for protection from enemy tribes The aggressive Lakota Indians in particular were constantly trying to steal our horses our supplies of corn and other belongings Our village was the home of two different Indian tribes the Hidatsa and the Mandan We had formed an alliance in order to increase our strength in numbers so we would be less vulnerable to attack Like a Fishhook Village was the center of much activity with people constantly coming and
I was cool inside never hol and stuffy My family's earth mound lodge was large measuring more than forty feet in diam eter It needed to be for it was home to my father grandmother brothers and sisters cousins and uncles and aunts twelve people in all Inside four enormous cottonwood posts stood like trees They supported timber crossbeams that carried the great weight of packed earth There was a fire pit in the center with a smoke hole in the roof above In the shadows beyond the four posts were more columns They held the log rafters and the leaning walls Various household items and baskets of dried corn and squash hung from poles set across the rafters Bed frames ringed the interior Each served as a bed as well as a place to sit The bedposts were draped with old tipi coverings for privacy this canopy also kept out drafts At night everyone slept on buffalo robes 12
OPPOSITE A reconstruction of an earth mound lodge at One A Slant Indian Village Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park Mandan North Dakota Outside the lodge is a drying stage accessed by a ladder cut from a single tree ABOVE AND LEFT Inside the reconstructed lodge massive three posts hold up the timber Crossbeams that in turn carry the great weight of the earth that covers the lodge The smoke hole in the roof allows light to enter and hearth smoke to escape 13
