6/11/21: Bismarck's Camp Hancock & On-a-Slant Village

Downtown Bismarck North Dakota's Camp Hancock State Historic Site was the location of an infantry post from 1872-1877 and a quartermaster depot and signal office until 1894. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it was originally called Camp Greeley in honor of Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Times and presidential candidate. It was renamed Camp Hancock in 1873 after the commander of the Department of Dakota, George Hancock. The post's primary aim was to protect the Northern Pacific Railroad's supplies, equipment, and engineering supplies. 

After the post was decommissioned in 1894, the buildings were used as offices and as the home of the director of the Weather Bureau Station until 1940. The weather station compiles statistics concerning precipitation, wind speed and direction, and barometric pressure. This data is used to make decisions about everything from crop decisions, to flight travel patterns to water levels in reservoirs.

Locomotive #2164 was a coal-fired steam engine built for use on the railway in 1909. When it was retired from service in 1955, it had operated approximately 1,400,000 miles. I daresay its owners got its money's worth, don't you!

When the railroad was formed in 1864, it was the first northern transcontinental railroad chartered by President Abraham Lincoln. After almost 107 years of service, it merged with several other railway companies to form the Burlington Northern Railway. Amtrak, the passenger service operated by the federal government now offers passenger service in the North Coast region.

Also on the site was the city's oldest church, The Bread of Life Church, later renamed as St. George's Episcopal that was moved to this location. The church had been in use from 1881 to 1949 and was connected with many events in Bismarck's history.

At one end of  Bismarck's Memorial Bridge was a plaza with flags, plaques, and 11 spires signifying Armistice Day, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I on November 11, 1918. The original Memorial Bridge was built in 1922 as a final connection on the transcontinental highway. The new bridge was dedicated to veterans and had five piers, one for each branch of the military.

Keelboat Park was one of several adjacent to the nearby Missouri River.

The park was named after the type of boat used in the early 19th century Lewis and Clark Expedition. It carried with it a number of plants and animals that were new to science the two explorers collected on their journey.

One of the sculptures found along the park's Riverfront Trail:

Reflections was an Indigenous sculpture with a reflective sphere surrounded by a spirit eagle that represented the earth as the 'mother to all nations.' The eagle was depicted engulfing the globe with its powerful wings that represented the balance necessary between men and women, plants and animals, and water and sky. Eagles were seen by Indigenous people as spiritual messengers carrying prayers from the earth world to the spirit world. 

The shallow waters of the Missouri and other rivers of western America required a unique boat design that evolved during the 19th century. One of these was the 1870s steamboat that could carry 300-400 tons of cargo, plus dozens of passengers on water just 18 inches deep! The Rosebud operated on the upper Missouri for nearly 20 years before sinking at the Northern Pacific Railway warehouse, south of this location in Bismarck, in June of 1896. 

I loved hearing and seeing a train rumble past on the bridge.

Nearby, Bismarck's Memorial to the Fallen in the Global War on Terrorism was dedicated to members of the US military and Defense Department civilians who lost their lives in the 'war.'

In the center was the Battlefield Cross that has been used as a visible reminder of deceased comrades since the Civil War with the helmet and identification tags signifying those who had died in battle. The bayonet signaled a time for prayer as a break in the action to pay tribute to the fallen. The final march of the last battle was represented by the combat boots.

President Reagan said "We will always remember. We will always be proud, We will always be prepared so we will always be free."

Above a Bismarck cooperative artists gallery that I visited was this interesting plaque that had likely once been part of the city newspaper. 

On the way to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park near the town of Mandan, outside of Bismarck, we noticed the city's largest hotel had been named in memory of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Established in 1907, it was the oldest state park in North Dakota and where we hoped to gain insight into the lives of the Mandan Indigenous Americans who had lived in On-a-Slant Village located in the park.

We stopped first at the Commissary where people living at the fort had traded goods. 

Beyond the Commissary was Custer House, which was the home of General George Custer, the Commanding Officer who led his men in the Battle of Little Big Horn. 

Instead of taking the time for a guided tour of the home's interior, we opted to simply walk around it, peering into the windows. 

The home had commanding views of the prairie in every direction. On May 17, 1876, troops led by General Custer left Fort Abraham to meet a gathering of Plains Indigenous people 150 miles to the west. They traveled on what was to become the Old Red Trail Scenic Byway.

From the front of the home, we had a view of the stables by the Missouri River in the distance. 

This was our view looking back to the house as we walked toward the barracks located a couple of football fields' length across the grasslands.

There were over 500 soldiers stationed at Fort Abraham at its peak in 1873. A view of the reconstructed barracks directly in front of Custer House as they would have looked from 1873-91:

The Custer House looked so so small as we neared the barracks.

Fifty soldiers lived in each wing of the barracks before it was abandoned in 1891. A guide at the barracks mentioned that setters then came and stripped everything down to the root cellars so the entire barracks had to be reconstructed. She smilingly said that one of the banisters was apparently in a home in Mandan!

The south side of the barracks was dedicated to the men in Company 1, which was established with 11 other companies in 1866 to form the new 7th US Cavalry Regiment. The Company served in Kansas, Montana Territory, and Dakota Territory and was one of five riding with Custer in June of 1876. More than half the men in the Company lost their lives in the Battle of Little Big Horn.

The barracks' Mess Hall:

We read in the barracks that the history of Indigenous Americans in the US armed services started at the beginning of the country. It wasn't until the beginning of the Civil War that Congress took note of the estimated 15,000 native people who enlisted in Union and Confederate forces. The US Scouts was an official branch of the army formed specifically for Indigenous forces that were designed in President Andrew Johnson's 1866 Scout Act. It authorized the Army to employ an indigenous force not to exceed 1,000 men.

Custer was shown in this photo posing with three Arikara Scouts.

In May of 1875, Fort Abraham Lincoln was the scene of a historic negotiation, the Treaty of 1875, where the US served a role in bringing warring parties together at the peace table. The warring parties were representatives of three bands typically referred to as Sioux and Three Affiliated Bands of other Indigenous peoples.  

After the treaty was signed, rhetoric and goodwill speeches followed with singing and dancing by the Sioux and 300 members of the Affiliated Tribes. Sadly, the peace that ensued only lasted about as long as it took for both sides to clear the fort. 

We then drove to the park's Visitor Center that had been built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. Out front was a representation of one of the corps. Single, unemployed men from 18-25 were eligible to join the CCC from 1933-1943. They were paid $30 per month, $5 kept by the participants with the balance sent home to their parents. Over 32,000 North Dakotan men served in the CCC, in the state, and across the nation developing state and national parks and wildlife refuges, restoring historic structures, and building bridges and roads.

For almost a thousand years the Mandan built earth-covered lodge villages and planted gardens along the Missouri River. The Mandan were known as "successful hunters and farmers, savvy and peaceful merchant traders, who were brave in defense of their homes." Some of their crops:

The diorama of On-a-Slant Village showed approximately 85 round earth lodges inside the walls of the village. Major social and religious events were carried out at the Medicine Lodge, the only non-round lodge.

In the middle of the central plaza was the Mini-midi-doux, also known as the Ark of the Lone Man. It commemorated "the protection given by Lone Man during the Great Flood that covered the earth." The Mini-midi-doux was the center of public religious events.

Religion and ceremonies were not separate features of everyday life in the Mandan culture. Religion was part of hunting, gardening, smoking, and every aspect of their lives.

War and Peace: The Mandan reputation was that they were peaceful people who didn't look for trouble but were trained to react if attacked. The Mandan built defensive fortifications backing natural terrain to protect their villages from attacks from the earliest times. Wide and deep ditches were constructed and backed with 15 ft.-high palisade walls. Boys as young as seven received regular training in mock battles. Almost every man over fifteen was considered a warrior until he was too old to fight. 

The Mandan villages were at the edge of the known map when Lewis and Clark embarked on their expedition on behalf of President Thomas Jefferson who proposed an exploration of the French-owned Missouri River country. In 1804 Lewis and Clark camped in this area north of On-a-Slant village. The expedition returned in 1806 with Sheheke who had been born in the village 40 years previously. He told the two explorers that the village had been abandoned after smallpox and the Sioux forced the Mandan to leave. 

Mandan Resources: Though trade brought materials from across the continent to On-a-Slant Village, the most important resources were closer to home. Within the region shown on the map, the Mandan extracted their own resources, including stones for tools and weapons; cottonwood and willows for building materials; bison and other game for food and hides; and specialty items like sage and cedar for ceremonial use. 

Obtaining other resources sometimes meant trips of hundreds of miles. Until the arrival of horses in the 1700s, the trips were made by long treks as far as the North Dakota Badlands on buffalo hunts, collecting other materials along the way.

The combination of the availability of and their ability to use the rich resources in the Mandan territory enabled the Mandan villages to become centers of trade in the region. They were able to trade items made and grown for things from all over the continent. 

The Four Stick Game was played by two or more people, each taking a turn at tossing or dropping the sticks. Different points were given according to how the sticks fell. Sixty small sticks called splints were used as counters. The winner was the one who had the last splint.

This Buckskin Ball seemed remarkably similar to a current baseball.

Earth Lodges: Extended families of 12-15 families lived in the earth lodges that were typically owned by women. An elderly parent might live with the woman, her husband, her unmarried sons, her married daughters, and their families. Large cache pits or cellars were honeycombed in the ground around and within the lodges. Archaeologists have revealed that a single lodge might contain seven-plus pits, each one five to seven feet deep, holding food, garbage, and even human remains. 

Due to the dangers of being a hunter or warrior, there were twice as many women as men. One practical result was that the Mandan practiced polygamy with men often marrying two sisters. 

Scattered Corn (1854-1940) was the first female Corn Priest of the Mandan people. When she was just 12, she learned the details in the art of building an earth lodge. Six years later, she had built four of them for her own use. 

That was how in 1934, with the assistance of the CCC, she designed and reconstructed five earth lodges in the park where her people had lived.

How profoundly sad that the park service felt the need to post such a sign at the entrance to the village.

As Steven and I approached the sloping ground of the sacred site, it was evident seeing how the village had received its name. Recent satellite imaging revealed that there had been 86 earth lodges visible from circular depressions. The study of tree rings from timbers found at the site indicated the village was occupied from 1575. The five earth lodges were typical of the dwellings inhabited by the Mandan before they were confined to reservations.

The ranger said we could enter four of the earth lodges but needed to be cautious in the fifth as bats were being smoked out there!

Inside one, we viewed a representation of a cache pit that acted as a fridge because of the cooler temperatures underground and stored food for winter and trade. 

Cottonwood scaffolds were drying platforms for vegetables as dried foods lasted longer than fresh foods. The platforms could be covered to protect the food from rain.

Family gardens lay outside the villages in the fertile bottomlands along the river. The Mandan women grew many varieties of vegetables while the men hunted buffalo, elk, and deer, and fished in the Missouri.

The second earth lodge we entered was called Regina's Lodge after Regina Whitman Schanandore, also known as Eagle Plume Woman, who was born in 1919. She was educated at Bismarck Indian School where she became an accomplished pianist by the time she graduated from high school. Regina later became a popular guest speaker, sharing her Indigenous culture. At age 73, she began writing a column for the town of Mandan's paper, called From My Lodge to Your Lodge to enlighten people about her Mandan culture.

As an interpreter for On-a-Slant Village from 1993-1998, Regina told stories to visitors from all over the world about her experiences growing up Mandan on a reservation. Her dream was to see On-a-Slant Village restored to a condition to make her ancestors proud. She lobbied tirelessly to make that happen and, just two months before her death in August of 1998, participated in the announcement that her beloved village would be restored after US Senator Byron Dorgan had secured funding in the National Park Service budget. What a remarkable woman!

If you're at all curious to see how the Mandan used literally every single part of a bison, I highly encourage you to click on the descriptions below so you can read them more easily. I guarantee you will be amazed by their resourcefulness.

And now for the organs:

And lastly the bison's hide including its beard!

We only spent a couple of minutes in the earth lodge that had been infested with bats because of the smoke.

In the middle of the plaza was a stockade-like area that the ranger told me was likely a small, private shrine for ceremonies that occurred on a daily basis. Longer ceremonies were held twice a year and normally lasted for four days or longer. 

We had had a very full but enjoyable day in and around Bismarck touring the capitol building, walking along the river, visiting Camp Hancock, and finally Fort Abraham State Park. But it was 'only' 3:30 when we left Bismarck and we still had a 200-mile drive east to Fargo where we would spend the night. We stopped halfway in the city of Jamestown for a bit to see some local sights. One was to see where North Dakota's favorite son and writer Louis LaMoore, (subsequently changed to L'Amour), was born in 1908. All that stood on the site now was a power station and some photos of the writer's family.

The photo showed Louis' eldest sister, Edna, standing in front of the family home in the mid to late 1890s.

Just up from where Louis L'Amour's home had been was the pretty pavilion in Zonta Park.

I had seen these same peace signs before and you will again, too! The writing on one side of it proclaimed "May peace prevail on earth."

Being fans of oddball attractions, we next looked for the World's Largest Buffalo also located in Jamestown. When we found it in a local Old West park, it definitely made the cut when it came in at weighing 60 tons, and measuring 46 ft. long and 26 ft. high!

The church in the Old West frontier town was built as a school in Eldredge in 1881 before being bought by the town's Luthern Church. When it was moved here in 1968, it was dedicated to deceased North Dakotan pioneers who had been buried in unmarked graves.

Just outside Jamestown was this adorable 'snowman'!

Almost the entire time we drove the 200 miles east from Bismarck to Fargo along the interstate, there was one large pond after another. Steven and I joked that we never knew there were so many bodies of water in North Dakota as we hadn't yet arrived in Minnesota, known as the Land of 10,000 lakes!

Next post: Exloring Fargo's Norwegian heritage.

Posted on Canada Day, July 1, 2021, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania where we came to recharge our batteries driving down country lanes in Amish country as we first did with our children so long ago.