Garrison Reservoir Geology, Paleontology, Archeology, History>

During late prehistoric and early historic times, the Garrison Reservoir area was the homeland of three distinctive native tribes, the Mandan, the Hidatsa (officially known as the Gros Ventres), and the Arikara, whose descendants still reside in the area. Less numerous than their more nomadic and somewhat better-known neighbors—the Dakota (known to Whites as the Sioux), the Assiniboin, the Blackfeet, and others—these village peoples clustered in relatively permanent villages of distinctive dome-shaped earth-lodge dwellings. Their subsistence was based in large measure upon a primitive horticulture. In their bottomland garden-plots they raised several varieties of maize (or indian corn), beans, squashes, and other native plants—important foodstuffs that were dried and stored for their winter use. To these garden staples they added wild fruits and berries and the flesh of animals and wildfowl. Many of the animals also provided furs and robes needed for heavy clothing during the long cold season. These native products in furs and hides were to become the basis for the first commerce with Whites.

Despite a basic similarity of economic and social life, the village peoples differ markedly in language. The Mandan and the Hidatsa speak Siouan dialects, allied to those of their more predatory neighbors, the Dakota. The Arikara, on the other hand, are members of the Caddoan language family, related to the Pawnee of Nebraska and to other groups found in the Southern Plains and the Lower Mississippi Valley.

When first visited by traders and explorers during the eighteenth century, these earth-lodge village peoples lived somewhat downstream from the reservoir area. They then occupied parts of the main valley from the mouth of the Heart River, near present Bismarck and Mandan, upstream as far as the Knife River. On the basis of scattered evidence, the village peoples appear to have been moving slowly upstream, in a long-term migration that began well back in prehistoric times. During the nineteenth century this current was to carry them still further northward along the valley and into the present reservoir area. There a reservation was established for them in 1870, in accord with the provisions of agreements with the federal government. This reservation is still known as the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation from the name of a prominent trading post (actually two of the same name, at different times) located in the immediate vicinity of Like-a-Fishhook Village, the last earth-lodge village of the Three Tribes.

The Three Affiliated Tribes, as they are officially known, now successful farmers, cattlemen, and horse-raisers, are proud of their long record of friendly relations with the federal government. Members of these tribes served with distinction as Scouts during the Indian campaigns of the 1870's. (About 20 Arikara scouts were slain in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.) Still others served with honor in United States Armed Forces during World Wars I and II, and in the Korean conflict. These tribes, descendants of the First Americans, are an important and interesting segment of the present population of the Garrison Reservoir area.