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The First Americans who populated the northern Great Plains of North Dakota were and are as diverse as the later immigrant settlers. North Dakota Native American tribes include the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Metis, Cree, Chippewa, and Sioux. The Mandans, probably the first of the modern tribes, farmed near the Missouri River from the early 1300s. Other tribes joined them, pushed westward from lake and forest homes as Europeans settled in the east or northward from the south as powerful, warrior tribes expanded and populations exploded. Even after they settled in North Dakota,with the exception of the Mandan, Hadatsa and Arikara who built log and earth lodges for permanent residence, the lives of the first Americans were often based in impermanence. Most tribes were in continual movement in search of game, safety, and appropriate seasonal habitats. When peace treaties between the various tribes and the U.S. Government created the reservation system in the 1860s and 1870s, the First Americans, just as new immigrants, adapted to new settlement requirements. Again, like the immigrants, the First Americans had to work against a host of obstacles to maintain their heritage and ethnic traditions while adapting to a new way of life on the reservation. |
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