Similarities Between Mandan's Culture And Religion

The Mandan were a tribe that were settled in the north Dakota area. They spoke Mandan, which was of the siouan dialect. They were a settled and permanent agrarian culture. They lived along the shores of the missouri river and the heart and knife rivers. This is where they came into contact with french traders and fur trappers in the 18th century, introducing the french culture and religion. This can be seen in the Mandan’s creations myth, which parallels major Christian events, and are chosen due to the Mandan’s culture. This lead to certain aspects of Christian faith getting picked up, and adopted into their myth. As contact between the Mandan and the French increased, the more the myth changed, the more christian influence could be seen.

Although his people are multiplying rapidly and are growing, he sees evil among them. The Myth proclaims that, “ In the course of time Lone man looked upon the creation and saw mankind multiplying and was pleased, but he also saw evil spirits that harmed mankind [..]”. This goes along with the noah's arc type theme in the bible, where God is unhappy with the attitude of his people, so he brings a flood to wipe them out. Although the Mandan’s deity, the Lone Man, does not bring a flood, he has a similar thought in seeing that his creation, mankind, was impure and he had to come up with a solution to fix it. This solution was to impregnate a virgin girl so she could give birth to a baby version of himself. This is oddly similar to the Virgin Mary story, which is one of the most important stories in Christianity, which makes it easy to believe that the Mandan adopted it into their myth. So the Lone man “ [..] changed himself into corn and the young girl ate it and conceived the seed.” These were chosen to be put in the myth due to the Lone Man being a devious character, and always wanting to be sneaky and have things go his way. This helps show his personality but also once again shows how he is more than a human, that he has the power to control anything that the Madan use in their life. This is why the Mandan chose to use these passages from the bible and change them to fit into their story, so

He said, “This cedar is my body which i leave with you as a protection from all harm, and this barricade will be a protection from the destruction of the water. For as Ma-na-ge said, they are coming to visit you.” He had told his village to set up a clear round space that had cedar poles, which were to stop the flooding. This seems similar to the Noah's Ark in the bible. The Mandan chose to use this because it would fit well with their theme of water, since the world was created by it, and their culture has built around it as well. The mandans culture was influenced heavily by the French, who traded and built trading posts around their territory. This can be seen greatly in their religion, including their creation myth. The influence of God and Jesus is seen, which they molded into their story. They kept their deity, The Lone Man, but did not keep all of their old