Mandan: One of America's Interesting Native People
A co-worker of mine several years ago was a strikingly beautiful woman with silky black hair, high cheek bones and interesting blue-gray eyes. Upon submitting her two-week notice back then, she informed me she was heading back to her "tribe" in North Dakota, much to my surprise. She said she'd keep in touch and send me a book on the Mandan. A name I was only familiar with because it was the home of Cloverdale Meats which has limited availability across the Upper Midwest.
She continued, "I am full Mandan." And she noted, "there is a business opportunity in North Dakota and it will take me close to my family."
To my surprise yesterday this book arrived via USPS:Encounters at the Heart of the World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounters_at_the_Heart_of_the_World
Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People is a Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction history book about the Mandan people, a Native American tribe located in what is now known as North Dakota. It was written by historian Elizabeth A. Fenn and published in 2014 by Hill and Wang. The book draws on a wide array of sources, including demographic, ethnographic, archaeological, epidemiological, and climatological research and records, as well as Fenn's own travels through the region.[1]
After she left back then I became curious and found Mandans may have originated in Eastern U.S., moved, maybe, to Missouri, then settled farther north in the Dakota's. Their blue eyes may indicate some interesting genetics as well as their language which may contain Welsh words!
And from another site: https://nativeheritageproject.com/2012/04/29/the-mandan/
The Mandan are arguably one of the most interesting of the Native tribes, in part, because of the persistent belief by some that they are not entirely Native….and haven’t been since before the 1400s in the era we describe as that of “European contact.”
Can't wait to read this book!
= new reply since forum marked as read
