521 - Chief Looking Village 2

Expert farmers, the Mandan people sustained themselves through crops of beans, squash, sunflowers, and most importantly, corn. The corn the Mandan people grew was a variety called Northern Flint that was specially adapted to the area’s climate and short growing season by generations of Mandan farmers. They also were skilled hunters and fishers. Bison were hunted in the summer and fall by large hunting parties. Smaller hunting parties would hunt for bison year-round. Every part of the bison was valued and used for food, hides, tallow, and tools. In addition to bison, the Mandan tribes would hunt deer, pronghorns, antelopes, coyotes, gamebirds, rabbits, and other small rodents. Fishing was also an important part of the Mandan people’s diet. Hunters would catch catfish, walleyes, sturgeons, buffalo fish, and more. They also collected various kinds of nuts and berries including chokecherries, grapes, and buffaloberries.

Trade was an essential part of the Mandan economic system. Their trade network spanned much of the continent, well over 400,000 miles, and Chief Looking’s Village was right in the center. All manner of goods were traded: marine shells, materials for stone tools, bison meat and hides, and flint tools made from Knife River Flint which can only naturally be found in western North Dakota. By the 1700s and 1800s, the Mandan trading network also dealt in Spanish horses, riding gear, woolen blankets, copper, pottery, French and English cloth, guns, axes, and glass beads. However,
Chief Looking’s Village was no longer occupied after 1600. Mandan people continued to live in the area until the 1780s when an outbreak of smallpox forced them to move upstream near their allies the Hidatsa.

Chief Looking’s Village was first mapped by George F. Will in 1905. A native of North Dakota, he was obtaining his undergraduate degree in anthropology at Harvard University. The land was owned by William Oscar Ward who, among other things, was a North Dakota legislator. In 1930, his estate sold the land Chief Looking’s Village sat on to the Burleigh County Pioneers Association, who, in turn, donated it to the City of Bismarck. In 1934, Company No. 2786 of the CCC excavated portions of the site. They also built three replica earth lodges on the site although these structures eventually fell into disrepair, before being completely destroyed by a fire. In 1976, the City of Bismarck eliminated the informal road and trail system that had formed on the land, restored the grass sod, and formed the current trail system. A year later, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The name, Chief Looking’s Village was given to the site in 2002, replacing its previous name, Ward Earth Lodge Village. 2008, 2015, and 2016 saw continued archeological research that resulted in our current knowledge of this historic Mandan settlement. As of today, Chief Looking’s Village is one of the most visited archeological sites in the Northern Plains National Heritage Area.