530 - Double Ditch Historic Site

For three centuries, Double Ditch Indian Village was inhabited by the Mandan Indians. During that time, there were times of population growth and times of decline. The earliest settlement was established around 1350 and consisted of about 160 lodges, 2,000 families, and occupied approximately a 22-acre area. Their fortification system was made up of concentric ditches, critical to their defensive measures. Over the years, as the population diminished, smaller defensive perimeters were built. Sometime in the 1700s, the fourth and final settlement at Double Ditch was reduced to only about four acres in size. What led to the final demise of Double Ditch Indian Village? The answer…smallpox.

The first great smallpox epidemic on the northern plains occurred in 1781 and 1782. It was this initial wave that was devastating to the Mandan village at Double Ditch. Ironically enough, the disease, brought to America by European settlers, arrived among the Mandan long before the white explorers and traders themselves! As it turns out, the disease traveled fast and, in this case, it was carried up the Missouri River, moving from tribe to tribe and leaving devastation in its wake. Double Ditch Indian Village was no exception. The epidemic was catastrophic for the Mandan Indians and was responsible for the abandonment of Double Ditch, along with all the other Mandan villages near the Heart River. Seeking respite, they moved to new villages farther upriver, though they would not be protected from smallpox for long.

1801 brought another smallpox epidemic, and, in conjunction with the earlier epidemic, had taken the lives of thousands of Native Americans in villages along the Missouri River. In 1837, more than fifty years after Double Ditch was abandoned, another disastrous wave would hit the people of the northern Great Plains. The Mandan had been reduced from a proud nation of more than 15,000, in villages like Double Ditch, to a meager 145, displaced by disease and war. Continue to explore this Talking Trail to learn about the devastating effects smallpox had on neighboring Fort Clark.