Last updated: November 8, 2021
Place
Smallpox Arrived at the Little Village.
Sioux Winter Count High Dog 1809-10 State Historical Society of North Dakota
Quick Facts
Location:
Stanton ND
Significance:
Hidatsa Village
The North American smallpox epidemic from 1775–1782 overall death toll was estimated at 130,000; However, it is believed that many more Native Americans died than was accounted for. Lewis and Clark remarked in 1804 that the population was substantially less than reports before the epidemic.
“Beginning in October, as the expedition made its way through present northern South Dakota, it passed numerous abandoned villages, composed of earth-lodge dwellings and cultivated fields. Some of the fields, although unattended, still had squash and corn growing in them. These had once been home to the mighty Arikara tribe. About thirty thousand persons strong in the year the United States won its independence, the tribe had been reduced by smallpox epidemics in the 1780’s to not much more than one-fifth that size. … What had been eighteen villages the previous year had been reduced to three by the time Lewis arrived.” (Ambrose, 178)
Because of the smallpox epidemic in 1781, the Awatixa had to abandon Lower Hidatsa village. Some survivors moved to other surrounding villages, but most went north to Rock Village (near where the Garrison Dam is today).
“Beginning in October, as the expedition made its way through present northern South Dakota, it passed numerous abandoned villages, composed of earth-lodge dwellings and cultivated fields. Some of the fields, although unattended, still had squash and corn growing in them. These had once been home to the mighty Arikara tribe. About thirty thousand persons strong in the year the United States won its independence, the tribe had been reduced by smallpox epidemics in the 1780’s to not much more than one-fifth that size. … What had been eighteen villages the previous year had been reduced to three by the time Lewis arrived.” (Ambrose, 178)
Because of the smallpox epidemic in 1781, the Awatixa had to abandon Lower Hidatsa village. Some survivors moved to other surrounding villages, but most went north to Rock Village (near where the Garrison Dam is today).