Hidatsa Garden

Hidatsa Garden. . With simple tools, Hidatsa women grew corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers in the fertile soil along the Missouri and Knife Rivers. , Buffalo Bird Woman, known in Hidatsa as Maxidiwiac, was born born about 1839, in an earth lodge along the Knife River in present day North Dakota. In 1845, her people moved upstream and built Like-a-fishhook village, which they shared with the Mandan and Arikara. There Buffalo Bird Woman grew up to become an expert in traditional Hidatsa gardening. , Mapi (Sunflower) , "Usually we planted sunflowers only around the edge of a field. We thought a field surrounded thus by a sparse sown row of, sunflowers, had a handsome appearance." , Ama'ca (Beans) , "In the spring, when I came to plant beans, I was careful to select seeds for the following points: seeds should be fully ripe ... plump, and of good size." , Ko'xati (Corn) , "We knew when corn planting time came by observing the leaves of the wild gooseberry bushes. This is the first of the woods to leaf in the spring." , Kaku'I (Squash) , "We has a reason for planting the squash seeds in the side of a hill. If we planted them in level ground the rains would beat down the soil ... but if we planted the sprouts on the side of the hill, the water from the rains would flow over them and keep the soil soft." , Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden