Mandans

Mandan

Portrait of Sha-kó-ka, a Mandan girl, by George Catlin, 1832
Total population
1,171 (2010)
Regions with significant populations
United States (  North Dakota)
Languages
Mandan, Hidatsa, English
Religion
Mandan
Related ethnic groups
Hidatsa, Arikara

The Mandan are a Native American tribe residing in North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still reside in the area of the reservation; the rest reside around the United States and in Canada.

The Mandan historically lived along the banks of the Missouri River and two of its tributaries—the Heart and Knife Rivers—in present-day North and South Dakota. Speakers of Mandan, a Siouan language, developed a settled, agrarian culture. They established permanent villages featuring large, round, earth lodges, some 40 feet (12 m) in diameter, surrounding a central plaza. While the bison was key to the daily life of the Mandan, they also farmed and actively traded goods with other Great Plains tribes.

The Mandan population was 3,600 in the early 18th century. In 1836, there were over 1,600 fullblood Mandans, but this number was estimated to have dropped to 125 by 1838. In the 1990s, 6,000 people were enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes. In the 2010 Census, 1,171 people reported Mandan ancestry. 365 of them were full-bloods, and 806 had partial ancestry.

The English name Mandan is derived from the French-Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier, Sieur de la Verendrye, who heard it as Mantannes from his Assiniboine guides in 1738. He had previously heard the earth lodge peoples referred to by the Cree as Ouachipouennes, "the Sioux who go underground". The Assiniboine are Siouan speakers. Nearby Siouan speakers had exonyms similar to Mantannes in their languages, for instance, Teton Miwátąni, Yanktonai Miwátani, Yankton Mawátani or Mąwátanį, Dakota Mawátąna or Mawátadą, etc.