This Pulitzer Prize-winning work pieces together the lost history of the Mandan Native Americans and their thriving society on the Upper Missouri River.

The Mandan people's bustling towns in present-day North Dakota were at the center of the North American universe for centuries. Yet their history has been nearly forgotten, maintained in fragmentary documents and the journals of white visitors such as Lewis and Clark.


In this extraordinary book, Elizabeth A. Fenn pieces together those fragments along with important new discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, geology, climatology, epidemiology, and nutritional science. The result is a bold new perspective on early American history, a new interpretation of the American past.


By 1500, more than twelve thousand Mandans were established on the northern Plains, and their commercial prowess, agricultural skills, and reputation for hospitality became famous. Recent archaeological discoveries show how they thrived -- and how they collapsed. The damage wrought by imported diseases like smallpox and the havoc caused by the arrival of horses and steamboats were tragic for the Mandans, yet, as Fenn makes clear, their sense of themselves as a people with distinctive traditions endured.

• We started tracking this book on April 20, 2015.
• This book was $9.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 46 times in the past 3,755 days.
• The current price of this book is $2.99 last checked 19 hours ago.
• The lowest price to date was $2.99 last reached on July 29, 2025.
• This book has been $2.99 13 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $19.99 last reached on October 2, 2024.
• This book has been $19.99 one time since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• HistoryUnited StatesColonial Period

• Publication Date: May 1, 2024
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 639 Pages
• File Size: 169 KB