Mandan Indians

            I'm studying about the Mandan Indians. The Mandan were a great and powerful people. The Mandan tribe is certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both in looks and customs, from all other tribes which I have read about.
             During the eighteenth century, white explorers and trappers heard legends of a small, peaceful Indian tribe, some of whom had blue eyes, blonde hair and spoke Welsh. .
             Men wore a shirt of deerskin, ornamented with porcupine quills, leggings, and moccasins. Women wore two mountain sheep skin, sewn together down the sides and over the shoulders as dresses with no embroidery. Deerskin moccasins reached up to the ankle were supplemented with deerskin leggings extending above the knee and fringed at the bottom.
             Finally, traders came upon the tribe living in what is now western North Dakota. Blue eyes, blonde, even grey hair was, indeed, found among them and many of their words were pure Welsh. .
             My report is based on the Mandan Indians. The Mandan were among the earliest Native Americans on the Great Plains. By 1400, they had migrated westward from the Ohio River or Great Lakes country, breaking off from other Siouan-speaking peoples. They settled along the Missouri River, first near the mouth of the White River, territory now part of South Dakota; then, following the Missouri northward, they eventually settled near the mouth of the Heart River, in present-day North Dakota. They lived in the latter location, near the Big Blend of the Missouri, when non-Indians first made contact with them in the 1700s. .
             The Mandan were most known for their friendliness and their homes, called earth lodges. The women of the Mandan tribe tended their gardens, prepared food, and maintained lodges, while the men spent their time hunting or seeking spiritual knowledge.
             Their environment consisted of long and extremely harsh and unfavorably cold winters with great expansions of land, ultimately falling victim to sharp and torrent winds.