Menoken Village State Historic Site

Menoken Village State Historic Site. . Menoken Village was a small community consisting of approximately 30 oval-shaped, earth-covered houses and a prominent fortification system. Once thought to have been a Mandan Village occupied at the time of early contact with Euroamericans, Menoken Village has recently been radiocarbon dated to around AD 1200. Archeological studies indicate that this settlement was built and used by Late Plains Woodland peoples, who were primarily hunters and gatherers rather than farming people. The community may have consisted of 200 individuals.

Can the site be attributed to historically known village tribes?

Menoken Village is earlier than any settlement that can be linked with certainty to Mandan, Hidatsa, or Arikara peoples in North Dakota. However, the people who occupied Menoken Village were probably the ancestors of at least some of these historic village tribes.

Why this location?

This location was carefully chosen for its defensive features. The steep banks to the north and west would be difficult for intruders to climb. The rest of the village was protected by a tall wall, or palisade, and the deep ditch we can still see today. The fortification ditch was dug just outside the palisade, enclosing almost one and one-half acres, As the map shows, the ditch formed a long arc, interrupted by four projecting loops, or bastions.

Usual features of Menoken Village

. Early settlement date (about AD 1200);

. Unusual fortification system, which required organized labor and much timber;

. Location along with a small stream rather than along one of the major rivers in North Dakota; and

. Menoken's several large oval houses, which differ from the later and better-known rectangular and circular earthlodge forms.

Photo captions: , Upper left: Aerial photograph of Menoken Village , Upper right: Site map of Menoken Village drawn in 1998 , Lower right: Map illustrating location of Menoken village along Apple Creek, a tributary of the Missouri River . This historical marker was erected by State Historical Society of North Dakota. It is in Menoken in Burleigh County North Dakota