Awatixa Village on the west bank of the Knife River  - NPS Photo
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site was established October 26, 1974. The 1,758 acre site preserves historic and archaelogical remnants of the culture and agricultural lifestyle of the Northern Plains Indians. More than fifty archaeological sites suggest a possible 8,000 year span of inhabitation, ending with five centuries of Hidatsa earthlodge village occupation. The circular depressions at the three village sites are up to 40 feet in diameter and are a silent testimony to the people that lived here.
Frontier artist and chronicler George Catlin recorded this early 1830's scene of an earthlodge village near the Knife River.
Smithsonian©1996 & NPS

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