Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site ⓘ

The Knife River region has been home to various peoples for perhaps 11,000 years. Very few objects remain for us to learn about the cultures who lived here, but early written records and large quantities of cultural material document how the Hidatsa lived in earthlodge villages overlooking the Knife and Missouri Rivers for 500 years. They developed a prosperous way of life in harmony with nature and the cycle of the seasons.

The Mandan and Arikara joined the Hidatsa in settled villages south along the Missouri River. Together these three groups pioneered agriculture on the Northern Plains while still hunting bison and gathering wild edibles. Despite their similarities as earthlodge peoples, conflict and competition were not unknown between these three communities.

Tribes from across the Northern Plains journeyed to these permanent villages to trade, socialize, and make war. The Sioux, Cheyenne, Crow, Assiniboine, and Ojibwe, along with white traders, explorers, and artists, made the Knife River Indian Villages an exciting and cosmopolitan place. Foreign visitors also brought new diseases that dramatically altered communities and cultures and led to the end of the traditional lifestyle in the Knife River region. In 1804, Lewis and Clark reached the Five Villages and stayed through the winter at nearby Fort Mandan. French Trader Charbonneau was hired at these villages as a translator along with his wife Sacagawea . With the help of the tribes, the Corp of Discovery survived the harsh winter.

The Upper Missouri River Valley is a lifeline winding through a harsh land. Where the Knife River flows into the Missouri River, a diverse mix of rich wetlands, hardwood forest, and river bluffs stands in stark contrast to the endless miles of rolling prairie.

This diverse environment supported a sedentary agricultural lifestyle unique to the Northern Plains. Hidatsa women grew corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers in the river bottomlands while they built earthlodges on the high terraces overlooking the river . Hidatsa men hunted bison on the vast open prairie and collected fish from the rivers.

The center of Hidatsa life was the village. With clusters of earthlodges so close they almost touched, each village supported a distinct community with its own dialect and customs. The remains of three large Hidatsa villages are in the park: Awatixa Xi'e Village , Awatixa Village , and Hidatsa Village . The round earthlodge depressions and midden mounds at these sites only hint at the vibrant cultures that once flourished here.

The Mandan people say they originated from under the earth somewhere to the east of the Missouri River. They traveled west reaching the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota. Moving north, the Mandan established numerous large villages along the Missouri river by around 1450 CE with a population reaching as high as 15,000 persons. By about 1550 CE, they consolidated into between seven and nine fortified villages around the confluence of the Heart and Missouri Rivers near present day Mandan, North Dakota.

A large and powerful nation, the Mandan prospered with the help of extensive trading networks that converged on the stationary villages. Mandan oral history vividly recounts the arrival of the wandering Hidatsa bands from the east. These Hidatsa bands learned how to farm from their Mandan neighbors, establishing nearby villages. In the 1600s, these Hidatsa moved north to the Knife River, joining the Awatixa Hidatsa already established in the area.

In 1781, a smallpox epidemic devastated the Mandan villages forcing the survivors to move north and establish two villages about five miles south of the Hidatsa villages. They prospered once again until an 1837 smallpox epidemic reduced the Mandan to as few as 125 individuals. Survivors moved to either the Hidatsa Village or merged with the newly arriving Arikara. In 1845, and again in 1862, the remaining Mandan moved upriver to Like-a-Fishhook village on the present-day Fort Berthold Reservation.

Today, the Mandan are part of the Three Affiliated Tribes or Mandan, Hidatsa , and Arikara Nation. They are centered on the Fort Berthold Reservation in west central North Dakota but live all over the United States and the world.

The Arikara, or Sahnish, trace their origins to Central America and then migrated through present day Texas and Louisiana. Archeological evidence supports oral history accounts of extensive migration up and down the Missouri River .

Explorers and traders found the Arikara living in fortified earthlodge villages at various points along the Missouri River from Nebraska to the North Dakota state line. In 1804, Lewis and Clark encountered the Arikara living in three villages at the mouth of the Grand River in northern South Dakota. They estimated a population of 3,000 individuals.

The death of an Arikara chief on a diplomatic mission to Washington D.C. increased hostilities between the Arikara and whites at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

A smallpox outbreak in 1837 decimated the Arikara who had just recently moved north, joining a group of Mandan at the Knife River area. They suffered a second smallpox outbreak in 1856, leading to their move upriver to join the remaining Mandan and Hidatsa at Like-a-Fishhook Village in 1862.

Today, the Arikara are part of the Three Affiliated Tribes or Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. They are centered on the Fort Berthold Reservation in west North Dakota but live all over the United States and the world.

Interested in finding a water route to the Pacific and affirming American sovereignty in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson selected Meriwether Lewis to lead an exploratory expedition up the Missouri River. Together with William Clark and a crew of enlisted military and hired boatmen, the Corps of Discovery left St. Louis in May 1804.

In October 1804, the westbound Lewis and Clark expedition was making its way up the Missouri River when it reached the five earthlodge villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes. Their hospitality allowed the Corps to construct Fort Mandan as a winter refuge, the beginning of a long relationship between the United States and the earthlodge peoples of the Knife and Missouri Rivers .

Over the course of their winter stay at Fort Mandan, the members of the expedition engaged in extensive trade and diplomacy with their Indian neighbors. Indian visitors came to Fort Mandan where they exchanged corn and wild game for trade goods. Lewis and Clark also traveled to the different villages, distributing gifts and peace medals to prominent chiefs in an attempt to win their favor.

The Mandan and Hidatsa also provided valuable information about the territory ahead. When Lewis and Clark hired French trapper Toussaint Charbonneau as an interpreter, they allowed his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea , to join the expedition due to her knowledge of her homeland to the west. In the end, she proved valuable as an interpreter and ambassador among her own people, all while caring for her infant son Jean Baptiste along the way.

On April 7, 1805 Lewis and Clark left the villages and continued west in six dugout canoes and two pirogues. After successfully reaching the Pacific, they returned to the five villages on August 14, 1806, bringing Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and young Jean Baptiste home. During this brief reunion with the people who had given them refuge in the winter of 1804-05, Lewis and Clark convinced Mandan Chief Shekeke and his family to accompany them east to meet President Jefferson. On August 17, 1806, the Corps of Discovery left the Knife River Villages for the last time.

Had Lewis and Clark not spent the winter of 1804-1805 among the Mandan and Hidatsa, the outcome of the expedition might have been quite different. The relationships forged between these different cultures proved invaluable for the success of the expedition, an expedition that marked a new era of contact and change at the Knife River Villages.

Today, two of the five earthlodge villages visited by Lewis and Clark are located at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site: the Hidatsa ( Big Hidatsa ) and Awatixa ( Sakakawea ) Villages. The Awatixa Village is also known as Sakakawea Village because Charbonneau and Sacagawea resided there when they joined the expedition.

Few figures in American history have attained legendary status like Sacagawea, the "Bird Woman." Her story has been told and retold to millions of Americans. Despite her popularity, little is actually known about her life. The details surrounding her origins, place and time of death, and the spelling of her name are still hotly debated. What is clear is that her time living at the Knife River Villages proved fortuitous with the 1804 arrival of the Corps of Discovery led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark . As an eleven or twelve year old Lemhi Shoshone girl living in present-day Idaho, Sacagawea was likely taken captive in a Hidatsa raiding party. She arrived at the Knife River Indian Villages where French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau took her as a wife.

It was while living at the Awatixa Village (or Sakakawea Village) that Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as an interpreter. A sixteen or seventeen year old Sacagawea then joined the expedition due to her experience with the people, the languages, and the land farther to the west. In the end, she proved a valuable member of the expedition, all while caring for her infant son, Jean Baptiste, along the journey.

Sacagawea returned with the expedition to the Knife River Villages in August 1806. It is believed she traveled south to St. Louis with Charbonneau in 1810 only to die at Fort Manuel Lisa in present-day South Dakota from "putrid fever" in 1812. Other theories suggest later marriages and a death date as late as 1884.

The most commonly accepted spelling of her name is Sacagawea. This spelling is an attempt to standardize the eight different ways her name is spelled in the Lewis and Clark Journals. All of the derivations include a hard "g" in the third syllable. Meriwether Lewis also gave the meaning for her name when he wrote on May 20, 1805 "a handsome river of about fifty yards… this stream we called Sah-ca-gah-we-ah or bird woman's River, after out interpreter the Snake woman."

The Sacajawea spelling first appeared in an 1814 publication of the Lewis and Clark Journals. Editor Nicholas Biddle, who was not associated with the expedition and never met Sacagawea, standardized the spelling and changed the "g" to a "j" for no known reason. Since that time, a second theory has arisen that says Sacajawea is Shoshone for Boat Launcher.

Sakakawea is a spelling unique to the state of North Dakota. It was independently created from two words found in a Hidatsa language dictionary published in 1877. Using the original journal reference to her name meaning "bird woman," U.S. Army Surgeon Dr. Washington Matthews, who compiled the dictionary, simply combined the words "tsakaka" meaning bird and "mia [wia,bia]" meaning woman.

2020 Downloadable Garden Guide An agricultural-based people, the Hidatsa were both farmers and hunters. Serving as the other half of their food income, enormous amounts of work were put into raising these gardens. The women were the primary caretakers of gardens, from planting to weeding, watering, and protecting these pieces of land from numerous hazards. The men too old to fight would also sometimes help garden or harvest. This page will cover the general ways gardens were raised and cared for based on records from a Hidatsa woman: Buffalo Bird Woman.

Many modern tools can find a relative in the tribes' gardens. Rakes were made from deer antlers and gardening hoes were made with bison scapula, also known as the shoulder blade. While a hand trowel is similar to a digging stick, digging sticks had more functions including poking holes for planting seeds, unearthing particularly tough weeds, and making post holes for fences. The watering system consisted of taking water from the river with bison bladders. Bladders are naturally waterproof and weight very little, but many trips were needed to water the family's entire garden which could span the size of a football field. For this reason, gardens were usually placed very close to the rivers. Their location so close to the water was also influenced by the winter floods when the rising and falling waters would bring nutrients to the soil. The gardening tools changed once Europeans brought metal to the tribes, but some, such as Buffalo Bird Woman's grandmother Turtle, still preferred to use the traditional tools.

Corn, squash, and beans; this combination known as the Three Sisters is common with tribes across the country, and the tribes from the Five Villages are no different. These foods were easily preservable and good for trade. Seeds from the best crops were saved to be planted the next year. The Three Sisters work together to help protect each other. Beans grow up around the corn stalks, and the squash spreads its vines across the earth to entangle any animals. Less known is the fourth crop raised by the tribes: sunflowers. These were harvested mainly for their seeds which would be pressed for oil. They also would be made into a seedball similar to a granola bar. Tobacco was an exception to the previous rules. Only men were allowed to handle it and only older men smoked it. The whole plant was smoked, the blossoms being the favorite part which were picked from the plant every four days. The species grown here is Nicotiana quadrivalvis known as "Indian tobacco" or "Native Tobacco," which is different than the common tobacco found commercially today. It was not planted near the main field because it had a strong smell. The tribes cared deeply for their gardens. They believed the corn plants had souls and loved to hear the women singing. You can listen to one of their work songs performed by Nellie Hall .

Protecting the fields was hard work. Between animals and birds, raids from other tribes, and even little boys within the villages sneaking in to steal a cob, the women had to devise several ways to defend their crops. One way was to devise a scarecrow. Buffalo Bird Woman described using bison robes and tying a belt around it to make it look like a person. This would work until the crows realized the figure never moved. Another defense was a fence. Forked posts were set in holes deep into the ground with rails laid in those forks tied with bark strips. Built in a circle rather than a square, the fence was placed twelve to fifteen feet away from the crops themselves. When several gardens adjoined, a single fence usually ran around them all and not around each individual field. The fences were built mainly to prevent horses from nibbling on the corn. The final technique was to build a watchers' stage to physically guard the crops. Rebuilt every year, this stage was constructed below a tree and raised high enough to see over full grown corn. If no tree was present in the garden, a small cottonwood would be cut down and placed in the ground near the stage for shade. At most, four women would sit on one stage, facing every direction to guard the field. Watching the fields often began during the fall before sunrise and ended at sunset.

With their mastery of agriculture , tribes living in the Upper Missouri River Valley developed a unique earth and wooden home to fit their sedentary lifestyle. The result of centuries of innovation and adaptation, the circular earthlodge of the Mandan , Hidatsa , and Arikara people was the perfect home for life on the Northern Plains.

Within traditional Hidatsa society, women owned and maintained the earthlodge or "awahte." An older woman with the sacred and practical knowledge of earthlodge construction supervised the entire building process. The women cut four cottonwood posts and beams and, with the help of the men, erected a central support structure. The women then erected an outer circle of posts and cross beams, leaned split logs to form a wall, and lifted the rafters into place. On top of this framework, the women laid bunches of willow branches, dried prairie grass, and thick sod to complete the structure. The finished earthlodge would be between thirty and sixty feet in diameter, ten to fifteen feet high, and took approximately seven to ten days to complete from start to finish. The women rebuilt the earthlodges approximately every ten years.

An earthlodge housed between ten and twenty people, usually sisters and their families. Beds were located around the outer ring in the areas between support poles. Personal items were kept under the beds while general use items were kept on raised platforms similar to bed frames. A typical earthlodge also contained a corral for prized war and hunting ponies on one side of the door.

The main focus in the earthlodge was the central fire pit with smoke escaping through a hole in the roof. In the event of heavy rain or snow, an old bullboat could be turned over the hole and propped up to allow smoke to escape. Earthlodge occupants sat around the central fire on reed mats including the atuka, a high-sided seat reserved for the oldest man of the household. The atuka was also offered to visitors as a sign of respect. A five minute earthlodge tour of the reconstructed lodge located on Knife River Indian Village National Historic Site is available to watch. Contact the park to learn more about on-site earthlodge tours.

The cache pit is a large bell-shaped hole in the floor lined with willow and dry grass and filled with dried corn, beans, squash, and sunflower. The women built several cache pits both inside and outside the earthlodge and covered them over to hide their location. Parfleches were rawhide containers hung from the ceiling used to store a variety of items such as clothes, dried foods, trade items, craft materials, and hides.

The tribes living along the Missouri River considered the earthlodge a sacred structure. The Hidatsa believed the spirit of the earthlodge resided in the four central posts and wrapped them with a hide or trade cloth as an offering. At the back of the earthlodge could be found a shrine containing sacred objects. Only the men who owned the objects were permitted to enter the space near the shrine.

Timber framed houses slowly replaced the earthlodge in the second half of the nineteenth century. The earthlodge lasted into the twentieth century as a ceremonial structure or in a secondary role as a barn or stable. Today, the earthlodge remains an important structure and symbol for the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara).

In 1995, the National Park Service constructed a forty foot diameter earthlodge with traditional materials next to the Visitor Center. It is fully furnished and open to visitors during regular park hours.

For centuries the Upper Missouri River Valley was a lifeline winding through a harsh land, drawing Northern Plains Indians to its wooded banks and rich soil. Earthlodge peoples, like the nomadic tribes, hunted bison and other game but were essentially farmers living in villages along the Missouri and its tributaries. Rising over eighty miles to the west, the Knife River is one of these tributaries. Where it flows into the Missouri, the Hidatsa called home.

The Hidatsa developed a unique lifestyle perfectly adapted to life on the Knife River and Missouri River. They built earthlodges from cottonwood and river willow growing along its banks. They made pottery from river clay, bathed in its cool waters, and traveled long distances over these natural highways. Spring floods restored the fertility of the land, leading to abundant fall harvests.

The Missouri River also brought many visitors to the villages. Lewis and Clark arrived by keelboat and pirogue in 1804. Artists George Catlin and Karl Bodmer arrived by steamboat in the 1830s. Fur traders shipped tons of trade goods up the river which they exchanged for bison hides and other valuable furs.

But the river could also bring death. Smallpox arrived on board the steamboat St. Peters in 1837, devastating the Mandan and Hidatsa. The survivors banded together and in 1845 left the Knife River area for the last time. They moved forty miles up the Missouri to found Like-a-Fishhook Village, their last traditional earthlodge village.

As part of the Flood Control Act of 1944, the Army Corps of Engineers planned the massive Garrison Dam project on the Missouri River. Despite passionate pleas from tribal members to build elsewhere, its completion in 1953 created Lake Sakakawea, flooding one-quarter of the Fort Berthold Reservation. This act fragmented the Three Affiliated Tribes community, straining their long spiritual and cultural connection to the river.

Today, visitors to the park can see the Knife River from the Village Trail (1.3 mi/ 2.1km) as well as from the longer Two Rivers Trail (6.2 mi/ 10 km). This map shows where visitors can also access the Knife River from the Village Trail Parking Lot located along highway 37 one mile north of the Visitor Center. The Missouri River is visible from an overlook on the North Forest Trail (2.8 mi/4.5 km) and an overlook on the Two Rivers Trail (6.2 mi/10 km).

Awatixa Village, also known as Sakakawea Village, was occupied from c. 1790-1834 CE. The Awatixa Hidatsa subgroup established the village after a smallpox epidemic forced them away from the Awatixa Xi'e or Lower Hidatsa Village. It originally contained as many as sixty earthlodges with a population that fluctuated widely. In 1834, a Sioux raid burned the village to the ground. The survivors are thought to have established the short lived Taylor Bluff Village on the opposite bank of the Knife River.

Today, the Awatixa Village is also called Sakakawea Village after the woman who resided there in 1804 and joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The village is also the most threatened among the Knife River Indian Villages. The Knife River has eroded away part of the village, leaving only thirty-one visible earthlodge depressions. This cut-bank erosion does however allow visitors to view many cultural features and artifacts in cross-section from a trail that extends along the Knife River below the village.

Hidatsa Village, also known as Big Hidatsa Village, was the farthest north of the Knife River Indian Villages. The Hidatsa-proper subgroup established the village sometime around the year 1600 CE. The village covered roughly 15.5 acres and contained over 100 earthlodges. It is estimated that between 820 and 1200 people lived in the village. Notable visitors include David Thompson (1795), Lewis and Clark (1804-1806), George Catlin (1832), and Karl Bodmer (1833-1834). The Hidatsa abandoned the village in 1845, moving upriver 40 miles to establish Like-a-Fishhook Village, their last traditional earthlodge village.

In 1964, the site was designated a National Historic Landmark to protect and preserve one of the best remaining earthlodge village sites in the Northern Plains. Today, the Hidatsa Village remains a site of profound spiritual, cultural, and archeological importance. Visitors can access the village site from a short quarter-mile trail located at the north end of the park.

The Hidatsa say that long ago they were three distinct groups. Each originated in a different place and had its own dialect.

The Awatixa (meaning "Village of the Scattered Lodges") say they always lived along the Missouri near the Knife River . They tell of thirteen young couples that Charred Body brought from the sky to make a village overlooking the Missouri River. The thirteen lodges spread into thirteen villages which became the Hidatsa clans. Archeological evidence has confirmed the oral tradition revealing the "Flaming Arrow Site" approximately twenty miles south of the Knife River and dating to about 1100 CE.

The Awaxawi (meaning "Village on the Hill") tell of living in the earth and climbing to the surface on a vine. They met the Hidatsa-proper near Devils Lake in eastern North Dakota and the Awatixa along the Missouri River.

The Hidatsa-proper (meaning "People of the Willows") also lived within the earth and came to the surface near Devils Lake in North Dakota. Hidatsa warriors met corn growers along the Missouri River and decided to move there. When they arrived, the Mandan asked them to move north up the river but not so far as to become enemies.

Both archeology and cultural traits support Hidatsa oral history and origin as far east as central Wisconsin. The Awaxawi and Hidatsa-proper migrated westward sometime in the late 1500s and early 1600s.

The three Hidatsa groups settled in three separate villages at the confluence of the Knife and Missouri Rivers. After a Sioux raid destroyed the Awatixa and Awaxawi villages in 1834, these groups joined the Hidatsa-proper near their Hidatsa (Big Hidatsa) Village . For this reason, the three groups today are together known as the Hidatsa.

In 1837, a smallpox epidemic struck the Knife River Indian Villages. The Hidatsa dispersed onto the plains, avoiding the worst effects, but still suffered a nearly 50% mortality rate. In 1845, the remaining Hidatsa, along with most of the surviving Mandan, moved 40 miles upriver to establish Like-a-Fishhook Village, their last traditional earthlodge village.

Today, the Hidatsa are part of the Three Affiliated Tribes or Mandan , Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. They are centered on the Fort Berthold Reservation in west central North Dakota but live all over the United States and the world.

Imagine a busy earthlodge village full of life and excitement: women sit on platforms and sing to their gardens, girls play with homemade leather dolls, boys practice with their first bows and arrows, old men smoke tobacco and laugh at each other's stories.

You see faces from across North America and even the world. You hear Hidatsa and Mandan and maybe even Lakota, English, French, or German. You smell corn boiling in a clay pot, sage smoke filling the air, and sweet wildflowers blowing in from the prairie.

Or perhaps you hear the howling winds of a winter blizzard. Thick wood smoke stings your eyes and cold air nips at your nose but the thick buffalo robe around your shoulders keeps you warm. Strange visitors enter the earthlodge bringing gifts of tobacco and in return ask for information on the land to the west.

In 1974, the United States Congress established a national historic site at a place that was once just like this. Knife River Indian Villages NHS preserves and interprets an area rich with history and culture. Learn more about the people and places that make this park special, or read our brochure for a general overview!

The Missouri River is now controlled by the Garrison Dam, which is approximately seven miles north of the park. Since the completion of the dam in the early 1950's, no large scale flooding has occurred in the area. Although this controlled watershed is good for humans living along the river’s edge, it has severe consequences for the natural environment. Many large trees such as cottonwood and willow rely on the flood for the perfect conditions for reproduction. This has created a false ecosystem which is resulting in a stagnant forest with little to no succession reminiscent of the forest that Lewis and Clark would have encountered.

Fungus and Elm Diseases are also prevalent throughout the forest. Ongoing projects are working to save the forest and to allow future succession the opportunity to occur but many years of neglect and hardship have taken their toll on the existing system.

Although the Missouri River is unlikely to flood, the Knife River is situated at a precarious location within the park’s borders. The Knife River flows through about three miles of the park and many of the archeological sites are located directly on the banks of this river. During the spring, huge ice jams will cause the river to rise over ten feet in an hour. When the dam breaks, ice and water scours the banks often resulting in entire banks being ripped from their berms. This causes cultural sites to be lost or archeological artifacts left exposed to theft.

Leafy Spurge, Canada Thistle, and Smooth Brome are just a few of the non-native species invading the park. In attempts to prevent non-native vegetation from overwhelming the prairie, controlled burns are conducted yearly. This is not a new practice as the tribes also used fire. When preparing their gardens for planting, they would set the old garden fields on fire because they noticed that the soil was better after a burn.

Connect with the project. It is called Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site Park Stewards.

Take pictures of interesting live things in the park. Don't forget to click on our project to add it to the data.

Check back on your app periodically to find out what you saw. Applicable items will have a comment box with how the Hidatsa tribe used the item during village life.

Whether it's a cool flower, a moth following you on the trail, or a snake you almost stepped on, it all helps determine how healthy our prairie ecosystem is. Get as close as you can SAFELY and take multiple pictures.

OMB Control Number: 1024-0275 The National Park Service is authorized by 54 U.S.C. 100702 to collect this information. This information will be collected through iNaturalist during BioBlitzes and other NPS citizen science events. The purpose is to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, and other organisms as possible in or around National Parks so that these occurrences can be documented. The data will be used by the NPS to better understand which species occur on its lands and where those species occur. Response to this request is voluntary. No action may be taken against you for refusing to supply the information requested. The permanent data will be anonymous. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Burden Estimate: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 5 minutes per response. Direct comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of this form to: Simon Kingston (970-225-3551); or Phadrea Ponds, NPS Information Collection Review Coordinator.

White tailed deer, coyote, porcupine, skunk, beaver and thirteen-lined ground squirrels are some of the more common sightings. Prairie pocket gophers are rarely seen but are evident because of their prominent tunnel activities amongst the historic village sites. A large number of birds can be seen on a walk in the park.

Game birds such as wild turkey, pheasants, canada geese and mourning doves often find a refuge within the park. Raptors such as northern harriers, red-tailed hawks, kestrels, and bald eagles are often seen. Other large birds such as owls, white pelican, snow geese, and great blue heron are frequently spotted. Songs birds are common and the species change as you move from the prairie into the wooded areas.

Although the park’s invertebrate inventory isn’t completed, a good selection of invertebrates have been located and documented within its borders. The most common order of insects are the Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (flies), Hemiptera (true bugs), Homoptera (leaf hoppers), and Hymenoptera (bees, wasp, ants) have been collected, resulting in over 200 different species of invertebrates having been identified. Because of the presence of the Missouri and Knife Rivers, twenty-six species of aquatic mollusk are known to exist within the park.