Essay On Mandan Indians

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Mandan Indians Imagine gliding across the plains, harvesting in the refreshing, velvety dirt, hunting buffalo, and storytelling around the fire in the darkness of the night. What could be better than that? This is how the Mandan tribe survived during the early 1800s in North Dakota. They had distinct roles for men and women. Mandan men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Only men became Mandan chiefs. Mandan women were farmers and did most of the child care and cooking. The Mandans frequently fought with the Dakota Sioux and Shoshones. The Mandan people have contributed to modern America by making beautiful artwork, having ceremonies, clothing and helping Lewis and Clark. The Mandans wore flamboyant, and exquisite clothes. They were especially famous for their elaborate warbonnets which were decorated with buffalo horns and ermine tails; only leaders wore them though. Mandan men usually wore breechcloths with…show more content…
Their beads were carved from natural materials such as shells, coral, turquoise stones, copper, silver, wood, amber, ivory, animal bones, horns, and teeth. Glass beads not used till colonists brought from Europe around 500 years ago. Hide paintings were another thing that The Mandans were good at, they used porcupine quills and beads to decorate the hide paintings. Women used elm, ash, or box elder twigs to weave onto a structure of willow sticks. The women wove dark and light colored pieces between the sticks to create a checkerboard pattern. To make paints the Mandan people mixed natural materials like clay, blood, juices from plants and trees, berries, bark, and fruit with animal fat to form paint. Their paintbrushes were bones that could absorb the pigment. Mandans used to layer coils of clay mixed with water, sand, crushed granite, clam shells or broken bits of old pottery to keep the pots from cracking when they were
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