MITCHELL PREHISTORIC INDIAN VILLAGE - SOUTH DAKOTA

Our last day in Mitchell, May 15th
The Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village was our opportunity to travel back in time nearly 1000 years  and walk in the footsteps of the Mandan, the tribe that Lewis and Clark encountered in the winter of 1804.
Live digs and Archaeology studies are scheduled throughout the summer. So the best that we got was a movie and a tour guide who shared his knowledge  of the indoor archaeological dig in the comfort of the Thomasen Center Archeodome with us. This included a walk through a replica earth lodge.  He was very informative.

In 1910 a local professor happened upon this area and suspected what was under ground. He shared this information with other educators in the area and it then became unearthed history of at least 1000 years ago. Since we were not there when there were students working in the digs, I will show you some pictures that I took from their movie showing other times.

Our first walk through was to see the replica of the community and a replica of their living quarters which housed as many as four generations of a family in one lodge. Take a close look of the inside of those quarters with the opening in the roof for the fire smoke to go out.

Because they suspected that the community housing was
on higher ground, the bison was not a risk to them
but was available to them for food and to make
tools for household, agriculture, and hunting game.

Replica of an earth lodge that you see in the previous
picture. They sure put the forest to many uses. I guess
I missed taking a picture of the one cot that did not have
any robes covering it. 

 The guide mentioned that the children slept on the ground floor leaving the beds against inner walls for the oldest of the families to keep them away from the cold. I thought that the ground floor might be more comfortable than the beds made from logs!! They did not indicate that any mattress was made from husk or grass at that time.???

The dark areas on the wall behind Gary is repairs that
have been done on this replica since it was first built.
And you could see where newer cracks are appearing.
The walls were about two feet thick, using small trees,
saplings, grasses and sod. 

 I wonder why the more recent American Indians used teepees? Unless that would be so they could move when needed to find a new supply of food. And to get away from their enemy tribes.
The Mandans were here much earlier having come from Asia across the straight to Alaska many years before the Indians that we found here when the pilgrims arrived.
Following are pictures of tools that were made from animal bones and hides and trees. I won't take the time to explain them all, but you can check them out.

Storage below ground for food. It was moved from time
to time to another pit to keep it fresh (?)

Bison, that many bones were taken from for tools.

I believe they called this a scapula which was
used for a cultivating tool.

They also had many dogs that were used for work
and for food.

 The rest of the pictures were taken from the bridge around the inside of the building where one could look down upon the digs. The orange string marking off the digging sights is the method they use for documenting each  item they find so they can study them and label them after cleaning them.

We sure where tired after this tour, and hungry!! So we stopped at Pizza Ranch Buffet which we had been wanting to try.  Needless to say, we again ate too much. So we play the feast and famine game!!