July 25, 2009
Our work assignment today was to attend the Northern Great Plains Culture Fest at this national historic site - just a half mile north of Stanton, county seat of Mercer County. This is the village that Sakakawea came from when her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, was hired by Lewis & Clark as an interpreter in 1804. Sakakawea wasn’t going to be left behind on that trip.
We enjoyed our work assignment thoroughly. Lois visited with Buffalo Bill Cody who told us of his exploits. He claims to have killed 4,300 buffalo in 18 months, hence his nickname of Buffalo Bill. Instead of musket balls, he used real bullets and could be more productive that way. Later in life he regretted his buffalo kills and tried to get those eastern dudes to ease up, which, of course, did not happen.
We visited with other reenactors and Lois bought a beautiful bracelet from a Hidatsa [different from Mandan] woman who does beautiful beadwork. Our visit with her was both enjoyable and instructive. Also there were programs going on all day, including Indian dancers which were fun to watch. Other presentations included flute music, fiddle music, storytelling and early fur traders.
There is a visitor center with a fine introductory movie which we saw. The permanent exhibit is a round earth lodge which is quite impressive. The door is a hanging buffalo skin. The walls are reinforced inside with verticle logs and other timbers reinforce the roof. The whole structure is covered over with prairie sod which acts as an insulator. The inside diameter of this structure is at least 40 feet.
We had lunch of buffalo meet and fry bread; Lois wanted a hot dog, just in case. The meat tasted just like beef. Very tasty.
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