Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site stretches across 1,758 acres along the Knife River and preserves the remains of three ancient villages with visible earth lodge depressions. The site shows how these settlements were organized along the river and contains scattered artifacts that tell the story of daily life in these communities.

These villages began forming around 1300 and grew into important centers of trade and life on the northern plains. The communities remained active settlement places until disease and other pressures led to their abandonment in the 1800s.

The Mandan and Hidatsa peoples built their communities here for centuries, with earth lodges serving as the center of family and village life. Visitors walking through the area can sense how closely these settlements connected people to the river and the land around them.

The site is accessed through trails that connect the different village areas at various difficulty levels. The museum on-site displays artifacts and provides context that helps visitors understand what they are seeing in the landscape.

Visitors can enter a reconstructed earth lodge built in 1995 that demonstrates the traditional construction methods of Northern Plains peoples. This hands-on experience gives a real sense of the interior space and how families lived in these structures.