Today we spent entirely within the confines of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. Our first stop was at the Visitors Center. We were here in the heat of yesterday afternoon to check out the amazing displays of life in a Mandan village. Today we took the interpretive tour of the On a Slant Village. A large number of the Mandan peoples lived here in a well fortified agriculture based community on the banks of the Missouri River until small pox arrived and the survivors moved north allying with the Hidatsa near the Knife River. Josh, our tour guide led us into various replica earth lodges to learn more about the culture and the building of the lodges by the CCC under the supervision of a Mandan matriarch.
Next thing we knew we were stepping back in time to 1875 and were being graciously welcomed into the home of George and Libby Custer by a Sargeant under command of General Custer. The premise was that we were houseguests arriving in time to ready ourselves for the dinner and dancing party tonight.
Once we walked out through the back door and back into 2016 our group had an interesting conversation with the interpreter about General Custer’s reputation, his wife’s role in spin control after his death, and other subjects regarding the US Army on the western lands in the post-Civil War era. With that we walked back to the commissary for some iced green tea refreshment. We spent the afternoon in the cool interior of the T@B napping, snacking, and watching history related videos. One was about Sheheke the Mandan diplomat that accompanied Lewis and Clark back to Washington DC. The other was the based on a true story 2015 movie, Woman in Gold about Maria Altmann’s successful case against the Austrian government resulting in the restitution of incredibly valuable art that had been stolen from her family by the Nazis. Another bit of time travel!
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