Note 230 — Chapter XXV · ACCOUNT OF THE MANDAN INDIANS

See p. 267 for illustration of Mandan huts. Alexander Henry (Henry-Thompson Journals, i, pp. 337-339) gives an account of the process of building these huts. The Mandan houses were the most elaborate Indian dwellings north of New Mexico, and characterized the tribal stage of industrial development. The energy required to cut and prepare the timbers with the rude implements in vogue, indicates an advance upon the industry of the wandering prairie tribes. See L. H. Morgan, "Houses and House Life of American Aborigines," in Geographical and Geological Survey of the Territories, Contributions to Ethnology, 1881, iv, pp. 125-130. A few of these huts may still be seen on the Fort Berthold reservation, North Dakota. See O. D. Wheeler, "Last of the Mandans," in Wonderland, 1903, who suggests that these Mandan dwellings were the forerunners of the sod-houses of the early settlers.—Ed.