Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation

The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation), also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, is a Native American Native American Nation resulting from the alliance of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples, whose native lands ranged across the Missouri River basin extending from present day North Dakota Through western Montana and Wyoming.

After the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty and subsequent taking of land, the Nation's land base is currently approximatley 1 million acres located Fort Berthold Reservation in northwestern North Dakota. The Tribe reported a total enrollment of 15,309 registered tribe members in March 2016. Nearly 6,000 live on the reservation; others live and work elsewhere.

History

Recent history

Membership/Citizenship Qualifications

Membership (Citizenship) is derived from the 1936 Indian Census roll of the Three Affiliated Tribes. In 2010 the tribal council passed amendments specifying "blood quantum," or minimum amounts of tribal ancestry to qualify individuals for membership and for candidates for public office. Individuals must have at least 1/8 Mandan, Hidatsa, or Arikara ancestry (the equivalent of one full-blooded great-grandparent) to become an enrolled member of the MHA Nation and 1/4 ancestry to serve in elected office.

Tribal Business Council

The Tribal Business Council consists of six Segment Representatives and a Chairman. Each member's term lasts 4 years, and there are no term limits. The Tribal Business Council holds Regular Meetings on the second Thursday of each month, and sub-committees meet at different times throughout the month.

Position	Councilman	Segment	Elected
Chairman	Mark Fox	MHA Nation	2014
Vice-Chairman	Randy Phelan	Mandaree	2016
Treasurer	Mervin Packineau	Parshall/Lucky Mound	2014
Executive Secretary	Fred Fox	White Shield	2016
Member	Frank Grady	Four Bears	2014
Member	Cory Spotted Bear	Twin Buttes	2014
Member	Dr. Monica Mayer	New Town/Little Shell	2016

Mandan

Main article: Mandan

The Mandan are a Native American tribe currently part of the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota. At the height of their historic culture, the Mandan were prosperous and peaceful farmers and traders, noted for their excellent maize cultivation and crafting of Knife River flint. They built earth lodges, and made villages of considerable technical skill, and cultivated many varieties of maize. They were a more sedentary people than other, more nomadic tribes of the Great Plains.

Lewis and Clark stayed with the Mandan when they passed through the Upper Missouri region on their expedition to the Northwest, including five months in the winter of 1804-1805. Sakagawea, a Shoshone who had been kidnapped and adopted by the Hidatsa at an early age, joined the expedition as an interpreter and native guide. Because of her contributions, she was honored with an image on the U.S. dollar coin. On the return trip, the expedition brought the Mandan chief Sheheke Shote with them back to Washington, DC.

The smallpox epidemic of 1837–1838 decimated the Mandan, leaving approximately 125 survivors and destroying their society. They banded together with the Hidatsa to survive. Later, when the Arikara were forced northward by wars with the Lakota, they also settled with the Hidatsa and Mandan.

When European-American settlers began arriving in this territory in number in the late 19th century, the US relocated the three tribes to the Fort Berthold Reservation in 1870. Under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the tribes formed a tribal government which they called the Three Affiliated Tribes, a self-governing unit. Today about 30 individuals in the tribe are confirmed Mandan full-bloods. Most members of the tribe have varying amounts of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara ancestry.

Some explorers described the Mandan and their structures as having "European" features. In the 19th century, a few people used such anecdotes to speculate that the Mandan were, in part, descended from lost European settlers who had arrived at North America before 1492, the voyage of Christopher Columbus. One legend associated them with having Welsh ancestry. Historians and anthropologists have found no evidence to support such a theory.

Hidatsa

Main article: Hidatsa

Pehriska-Ruhpa of the Dog Band of the Hidatsa, c. 1832-1834, by Karl Bodmer.

The Hidatsa, called Moennitarri by their allies the Mandan, are a Siouan-speaking people. The Hidatsa name for themselves (autonym) is Nuxbaaga ("Original People"). The name Hidatsa, said to mean "willows," was that of one band's village, after a prominent landscape feature. When the villages consolidated, the tribe used that name for their people as a whole.

Their language is related to that of the Crow nation. They have been considered a parent tribe to the modern Crow in Montana. The Hidatsa have sometimes been confused with the Gros Ventre, another tribe which was historically in Montana. In 1936, the Bureau of Indian Affairs compiled the Tribe's Base Roll listing all Hidatsa as "G.V.", for Gros Ventre. Today about 30 full-blood Hidatsa are members of the Affiliated Three Tribes. Most Hidatsa people have ancestry also of the Mandan and Arikara tribes.

Arikara

Main article: Arikara

The Arikara call themselves Sahnish. The Arikara were forced into Mandan territory by conflict with the Lakota (Sioux), between the Arikara War and the European-American settlement in the 1870s. The Arikara lived for many years near the Fort Clark trading post, also called Knife River.

In 1862 they joined the Hidatsa and Mandan at Like-a-Fishhook Village, near the Fort Berthold trading post. For work, the Arikara men scouted for the U. S. Army, stationed at nearby Fort Stevenson. In 1874, the Arikara scouts guided Custer on the Black Hills Expedition, during which his party discovered gold. This resulted in a rush of miners to the area, causing conflict with the Lakota, who considered the Black Hills to be sacred.

In 1876, a large group of Arikara men accompanied Custer and the 7th Cavalry on the Little Big Horn Expedition. Arikara scouts were in the lead when US Army forces attacked the widespread encampment of thousands of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors and families. Several scouts drove off Lakota horses, as they had been ordered, and others fought alongside the troopers. Three Arikara men were killed: Little Brave, Bobtail Bull, and Bloody Knife. During the subsequent confusion, when the scouts were cut off from the troopers, they returned to the base camp as they had been directed. After the battle, in which Custer and some 260 other US troops were killed, the search for scapegoats resulted in some critics mistakenly accusing the scouts of having abandoned the soldiers.

Notable tribal members

• Edward Lone Fight (b. 1940), former Chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes
• Tex G. Hall, Chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes from 1998 to 2006
• Denise Juneau, State Superintendent of Public Instruction for Montana

References

• Gilman, Carolyn, Mary Lane Schneider, et al. The Way to Independence: Memories of a Hidatsa Indian Family, 1840-1920. St Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87351-209-X.
• Libby, Orin G., ed. Arikara Narrative of Custer's Campaign and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8061-3072-5.
• Hammer, Ken. With Custer in '76, Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1976.
• Matthews, Washington. Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians, U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey, 1877.
• Nichols, Ron. Men with Custer, revised ed. Hardin, MT: Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Association, 2000.
• Wilson, Gilbert Livingstone, Ph.D. Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: an Indian Interpretation, University of Minnesota, 1917.

External links

• Three Affiliated Tribes home page
• Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden - Hidatsa agriculture
• Leon Wolf's Complaint - Hidatsa gestural language
• Discovering Lewis and Clark, history of tribe and interviews with members