Knife River Villages

George Catlin completed this oil painting of a Hidatsa village in 1832.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Quick Facts

Location:

564 County Road 37, Stanton, ND 58571

Significance:

Site of the Mandan and Hidatsa villages near where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark built Fort Mandan, where the expedition spent the winter of 1804–1805.

Designation:

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Landmark

Amenities

15 listed

Accessible Rooms, Assistive Listening Systems, Audio Description, Braille, Captioned Media, Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information - Ranger/Staff Member Present, Information Kiosk/Bulletin Board, Parking - Auto, Restroom, Restroom - Accessible, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Trailhead, Wheelchair Accessible

“As the elders said, Lewis and Clark were no big deal, but we knew how to be diplomats from earlier encounters, and we knew the value of trade, and I think we understood that the expedition was just the continuation of many maashe’s (white men) to come.”—Gerard Baker, Mandan-Hidatsa, 2006

Paddling up the Missouri River, a traveler would pass several Mandan and Hidatsa towns, full of earthen lodges, before reaching the point where the Knife River emptied into the Missouri. Along that river were two Hidatsa towns, which were also home to many Mandan. Awatixa was the town where Sacagawea and her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, lived. These were winter villages, which were smaller than and upriver from summer villages. 

Mandan and Hidatsa people cultivated crops in the fertile riverine lands, and they were well-acquainted with the French, British, and Spanish traders who traveled the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to trade with them. They even permitted some of these traders, like Charbonneau, to live with them, as was customary in many Indigenous villages across the continent. 

In the winter of 1804–1805, Mandan and Hidatsa people permitted members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to build a dwelling for the winter seven miles downriver. 

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark wanted to be at this site because of its proximity to the Mandan and Hidatsa villages on the Knife River. They wanted to have access to the expansive trading network that revolved around these towns, which spanned west to the Rocky Mountains, north into Canada, and south through the Great Plains. A wide array of goods was available at these marketplaces: Spanish horses, Cheyenne leather goods, English and French guns and ammunition, and food grown and preserved by Mandan and Hidatsa people.

Lewis and Clark wintered here because they needed access to the goods and information that Mandan and Hidatsa people had thanks to generations of developing relationships and trade networks with people who lived up and down the Missouri River. 

About this article: This article is part of a series called “Pivotal Places: Stories from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.”

Lewis and Clark NHT Visitor Centers and Museums

Visitor Centers (shown in orange), High Potential Historic Sites (shown in black), and Pivotal Places (shown in green) along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail