Painting by George Catlin
The Village Indians migrated into modern day
South Dakota, where they lived in semi-permanent villages for the
next several hundred years. Click here for more
Archeological digs have shown that during
this time the Mandans lived in small villages of about 200 people
each. Their economy was based on hunting, gathering and
agriculture. They hunted deer and buffalo. They fished,
gathered wild berries (june berries, chokecherries, buffalo
berries, prairie turnips), and grew corn, beans and squash in their
gardens, and storied their dried crops in underground bottle shaped
caches.