Mandan

North America
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expand_more Description

The Mandan are a Siouan speaking people living in the state of North Dakota, their aboriginal home. By the twentieth century most of the Mandan population has been resettled in the southern portion of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Their primary subsistence activity was hunting (particularly the bison), and supplemented by limited agricultural products. Kinship structure was based on clans (thirteen originally and reduced to four in early historic times). These four were divided into two moieties, called the west side and east side. Kinship terminology was of the Crow type. Early villages were autonomous units united by clans. Each village elected two leaders, who possessed sacred bundles, from the council of men. In the 1930s the Mandan adopted a constitutional form of government with an elected council. Traditionally Mandan religion centered on a belief in supernatural powers that were shared by all living things.

Identifier
Region
  • North America
Subregion
  • Plains and Plateau
Countries
  • United States
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