Plains Tribe: the Hidatsa
Sometime in 1800, a young Shoshone girl was captured in an enemy raid and taken into slavery. The tribe who raided her village were the Hidatsa, a Sioan-speaking people living in what is now North Dakota. Their name for themselves is Hiraaca, a word which may refer to willow. The Mandan knew them as the Minataree, which has created confusion with another tribe of Natives, the Gros Ventre, who are sometimes also called Minataree. Originally, the word Hidatsa applied to one of their original villages, before being applied to the tribe as a whole. Oral tradition states that what are now the Hidatsa came from the Devil's Lake region of North Dakota. The Knife River area was their home range when Europeans first encountered them. Originally, they were a powerful enough tribe that few other nations would challenge them. A cholera epidemic in 1782 diminished their population and left them vulnerable to other tribes. The Sioux attacked the villa...