The Earth Lodge People: the Mandan
When early explorers encountered Native people and wanted to designate them in a written record, they often went with what the surrounding tribes called them, rather than the tribe's own name for themselves. The Mandan are a Siouan-speaking people living in North Dakota with two closely allied tribes, the Hidatsa and Arikara. Historically, their range was the Missouri River, in what is now North and South Dakota. They were living there when French explorers encountered them in 1738. The French adopted the name Mandan as a corruption of various Siouan words for people who dwelt in earth lodges or people who lived under ground. Later Anglo explorers stated that the Mandans referred to themselves as People of the Pheasants. Most likely, like many Native tribes, they had a variety of names that referred to themselves as people. Mandan oral history reveals that their original home was near a large lake. Like other Siouan peoples, pre-Contact Mandan likely lived in the Ohio and