Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1908-09-18

ms EOEH RCNAOAO ASsASs
Round the ancient trading post Of
Fort BerthoId, N. D.-a post Of the
fur companies in the long ago-cluster
three strange and interesting Indian
tribes. The association of these three
bands-the Arikara, Minitari and Man
dan-shows how feeble tribes Of differ
emit stock often had to join arms for
protection against q common foe, while
the Fort Berthold Indians afford most
interesting subjects for chronological In
vestigation.
The Arikara are Of Pawnee race; the
Enthusiastically known as "Gros
Ventres Of the Missouri"-are Crows,
and the Mandan, If old tradition and
curious circumstances can be believed,
are mixture of Sioux, Mound Build
ers and Welshman.
Way back some 600 years ago,
Welsh prince named MadOc sailed to
find a new world, and is believed to
have landed in North America, taken
his followers into the interior, and van
ished among the Indian tribes. At
Ibout the same time, the misty, dim
igured Mound Builders were erecting
orts and houses along the Ohio River.
Traces Of their wanderings are shown
py the remains Of these structures
down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, and
ending where the Mandan villages were
found 200 years ago.
The Mandan pattern homes and for
tifications as the Mound Builders did.
That, with their location, links them
with this prehistoric race. But among
the Mandans, to this day are many peo-
pie with light skin and blue eyes-nOt
mixed bloods, but recurring types,
transmitted from a white infusion of
the long ago. The Mandan language,
taken word by word, Is mainly Sioux,
but shows many words that are de-
clared to be plainly and Enthusiastically
Welsh. Finally, the Mandans navigate
the river in "bullboats" of strange cir
cular pattern, identical with the coracle
of Wales
The Mandans, therefore, seem to be
wondrous link between the Indian
and the adventurers of centuries gone
by, and also a link between the red
man and the extinguished nations that
built the great structures dotting many
portions of the Mississippi Valley.
Where can an ethnologist find a finer
field for long, industrious labor?
The Minitari, or Gros Ventre-not
related to the Gros Ventre du Prairie,
living at Fort Belknap-are Crow by
race, stature and speech, and are the
brayest of the three allied tribes. The
Arikara are stocky, dark, silent and
taciturn, of Pawnee stock, but less
valiant than the Pawnee proper.
Lewis and Clarke, a century ago, had
some skirmishes with the Minitari, and
the white trappers fought the Arikara,
WAYS the white mans friend, entertain
ing La Verendrye and his coureurs des
bois in royal fashion 200 years ago.
These tribes fought among themselves
considerably, but when the Sioux began
to press them hard they built adjoining
villages, fortified them with palisades,
and made treaties of peace and brother
hood.
About seventy years ago the three
tribes probably numbered 1000, 900
Minitari, 1900 each for the Arikara
and Mandan. The smallpox swept off
most Of the Mandan, and hundreds of
the others. In 1878 they totaled about
1,45O, and DOW number about LOO.
Their reservation is of poor quality,
and they are a poverty-strIcken lot Of
red men, although they do their best to
get along