Mandan Tribe Research Paper

Name:Karanvir Grewal

The Mandan tribe is a semi-nomadic tribe that lived in North Dakota, near the Missouri River in the Great Plains. They are still here even today. The Mandan are famous for their beadwork, hide paintings, quillwork, and most of all tattoos. The Mandan are farmers, but are also hunters. They refer to themselves as the Numakiki which means people. This makes the Mandan tribe unique in their lifestyle and beliefs. The Mandan culture and way of life is a unique one. According to source B unlike most Plains tribes who gave up permanent villages with the arrival of horses when they made contact with the Europeans, this was not the case with the Mandan tribe,“Most of the Plains

According to source B, they were a semi nomadic tribe of hunters and farmers, “The Mandan tribe were semi-nomadic tribe of hunters and farmers.”(source B). They are famously known as the tattooed people because of their tattoos which were considered an important part of their religion, “The Mandan tribe were known as "the tattooed people".(source B). The Mandan practiced agriculture where they grew crops like corn, sunflower seeds, beans, pumpkins, and squash. According to source B, they also ate wild vegetables like spinach, prairie turnips, and potatoes along with fruits like berries and watermelons. They also hunted animals for meat, such as bison, deer, elk, wild turkey, prairie dogs, and during times of food scarcity they had dried bison meat called pemmican, “Their main food were supplemented with roots and wild vegetables such as spinach, prairie turnips and potatoes together with berries and fruits such as melon. When food was scarce the Mandan tribe ate dried buffalo meat, called pemmican.”(source B). The place they lived was full of life, like sturgeon,