Mandan Tribe

[gunny]

Read Prince Maximillians journey on the Missouri in 1833-34. He and the Lewis & Clark expedition in like 1805 were amazed at the Mandans. Many had white skin, features, blue eyes, etc. Because of their strict morals before liquor was presented, there was no intercourse between them and the previous French trappers. They had no tribal memory of previous white contact. Lewis & Clark estimated 1600 tribal members. A report in 1839, after smallpox and liquor, had a remainder of about 160. Are there any pure ones left? Another interesting report from a fur hunting group during the same era found a small tribe of the Gros Ventres a little furthur west that "looked like white men and women dressed up like indians". The amazing thing was the tribe spoke a form of Welsh that a Welshman, a member of the trappers, could understand. Coming back through the village, about nine months later, all were dead of smallpox. Has anyone researched, like DNA, these interesting reports?

[Minimalist]

Indeed.

These Indians have better complexions than most other Indians, and some of
the children have fair hair. . . . These people do not bury their dead, but place the
body on a scaffold, wrapped in a buffaloe robe, where it lies exposed. — Gass (p. 83).

The University of Virginia has digitalized the journals of Lewis and Clark, if you're interested.

http://hatbox.lib.virginia.edu/servlet/ ... mo/toc.xsl

I found the quotation above in Chapter 5.

[Frank Harrist]

This may refute that rumor. Sorry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandan

"In 1796 the Mandan were visited by the Welsh explorer John Evans, who was hoping to find proof that their language contained Welsh words. Evans spent the winter of 1796-7 with the Mandan, but found no evidence of any Welsh influence."

[Rokcet Scientist]

Just look at Mandans: http://images.google.com/images?client= ... a=N&tab=wi

Long faces, straight 'Roman' noses, deep tan-like skin color rather than the more yellowish tinge in other Indians' skins. If those ain't Caucasian features I don't know what they are. But certainly not mongoloïd!

[Frank Harrist]

To me they look just like the Sioux, who never looked mongoloid to me. In fact few NA peoples looked even remotely asian. IMO of course.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Trust your eyes!

[Minimalist]

I don't know, guys.

I look at this picture of a Mandan:



and it just seems very similar to this picture of Leif Ericcson's great-great-grandson,

[stan]

Kowabunga, Buffalo Bob!

[Minimalist]

[Frank Harrist]

You guys crack me up!

[Forester]

Hmm, well, I have to say that those photos look like fairly typical Plains NA's to me, not much different from Sioux, Cheyenne or Lakota.
I am half Dine (Navajo), and they look much more NA than I do. Just MHO.