The Knife River Earth Lodges

The Knife River Indian Village is a National Park site in eastern North Dakota. The Mandan and Hidatsa tribes of the Upper Missouri River Valley, were farmers who lived in earth lodge villages. The earth lodge was a round, 40ft wide structure made of wood, covered in reeds, dirt and grass. 

While it's much larger inside than you'd expect, one earth lodge would house 10-30 people! The door is a bison hide, hooves attached by a rope on the inside served as a door bell. 

A whole in the ground was a safe place to store food for later. See below for a diagram showing how they would pack it.

This village consisted of about 120 lodges. These were the summer homes of the people, built along the river bluff for security. George Catlin visited the village in the 1830s and created the painting below. In winter, they lived in less permanent homes, often only used for one season, on lower ground near trees for wind protection and fuel for fires.

Here's a photo of what the area looked like more recently, though it's getting harder and harder to see signs of the earth lodges along the river. Flooding has eroded some of the bank, so they've constructed a wall to protect it.

The museum had lots of artifacts on display.

Stories would be recorded in pictures drawn on buffalo hides. 

They used the outer casing of a bison heart to store and carry water.

We walked to the area where Sacagawea lived and where her son, Jean Baptiste, was born. Turns out we've all been pronouncing her name incorrectly. The woman we know as Sacajawea, should be pronounced sah-KAH-gah-we-uh, though there are still multiple acceptable spellings.) Sacaga = bird, wea= woman, "bird woman".

Here you can see the depression in the ground where an earth lodge used to be.

The kids have been earning Jr Ranger badges everywhere we go. This was a lovely setting for their pledge, though they were shaded. Oh well.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South)

The south unit has a 35 mile scenic drive loop, however, construction has closed one section, resulting in a much longer, out and back drive. But first we stopped at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center so the kids could get their Jr Ranger badges, plus there’s a nice view from this location.

We started the scenic drive, and stopped to hike the Wind Canyon Trail for great views of a bend in the Little Missouri River. 

One of our favorite parts was passing thru the Prairie Dog Towns! They are so cute and make a little squeaky, chipping noise. The funniest part was when a few would make a loud noise and they’d throw their arms in the air and bend backwards. Very entertaining creatures.

See all the burrows (dirt mounds)?

 

Views from the short but steep Buck Hill trail.

Last we hiked the Coal Vein Trail. The park is known for this black coal vein layer that shows along the sides of the mountains here. This coal layer can catch on fire and burn underneath the earth! There was a fire here that burned for 26 years (1951-1977)! During our visit we were notified of multiple coal veins actively burning and producing smoke in the park. We didn’t see any though. Here the kids are pointing at one of the coal layers.

This was such a fantastic park! The views were beautiful, hikes were fun and the animal encounters are memories that will stay with us forever. Until next time, North Dakota!