Drying Stages -- Knife River Indian Villages NHS, Stanton ND - North Dakota Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site is a fascinating glimpse into the way that Indian tribes along the Missouri and Knife Rivers lived before the Europeans arrived.

This National Historic Site also contains the Indian village that Toussaint Charbonneau and his wife Sakakawea lived in at the time the Lewis and Clark expedition came through and hired them both to accompany the explorers on their trek to the Pacific Ocean and back.

The waymarked historical marker reads as follows:

"Drying Stages

“A corn drying stage stood before every lodge”

“By far the chief use of the drying stage was to drive vegetables, especially our corn and sliced squashes. Firewood, collected from the Missouri in the June rise [flood], was often piled on and under the stage floor to dry.”

The keepers of the O’kipa ceremony used to bring out their Buffalo had masks, and air them on the drying stage that stood before their lodge door.”

Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden"

Roadside: no City: no Other: yes

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Date Logged Log User Rating   03/01/2023 Benchmark Blasterz visited it