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• Surviving Cold Northern Plains Winters: Mandan & Hidatsa Winter Earth Lodge Villages

  • When
    March 11, 2026
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Meeting Room A (Bismarck Public Library, 515 N 5th St)

  Signe Snortland will present a program on winter camps along the Missouri River.  

  Typically, during the Plains Village period, Mandan and Hidatsa people built summer earth lodge villages on high bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Missouri River.  But winter villages, occupied seasonally during long, cold winters, were constructed on sheltered floodplains.  Very few of these archaeological sites have been found because homes and their contents washed away during spring flooding. In 2023 Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, a Terracon Company, test excavated a cluster of four earth lodge sites on bottomland near the Square Butte Creek confluence with the Missouri River north of Mandan, North Dakota. Pottery sherds indicate occupation began A.D 1300-1500 and reoccurred intermittently until the 1880s. Artifacts found here differ from than those found in summer earth lodge villages. Ethnohistorical accounts of Mandan and Hidatsa winter villages in settings like the Square Butte Creek Valley support an interpretation that these tested sites were winter occupations rather than summer villages, offering an opportunity to explore seasonal differences in material cultural and technology.

  Program is free and open to the general public.

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• Public Health in Bismarck, N.D. Prior to 1990

  • When
    April 08, 2026
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Meeting Room A (Bismarck Public Library, 515 N 5th St)

  Steve McDonough will speak on the history of public health in Bismarck and Burleigh County from statehood to 1990.  More information will be forthcoming.

  Program is free and open to the general public.

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• 3rd Annual Founders Day Trivia Event

  • When
    May 13, 2026
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Laughing Sun Brewing (1023 E Front Ave, Bismarck)

  The 3rd Annual Founders Day Trivia Event celebrates Bismarck's founding on May 14, 1872 with a collection of Bismarck trivia, oddities, historical pictures, and teams of local history enthusiasts competing for bragging rights.

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• Fort Abraham Lincoln and the Great Sioux War

  • When
    June 10, 2026
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Meeting Room A (Bismarck Public Library, 515 N 5th St)

  This presentation by Austin Glant examines the critical years leading to the Battle of the Little Bighorn through the lens of Fort Abraham Lincoln and its garrison. Tracing the post’s history from its 1872 construction to the 7th Cavalry’s departure in May 1876, the session explores the geopolitical causes of the Great Sioux War and the fort’s strategic role in the conflict. Attendees will gain insight into the rigorous winter preparations of 1875–76, the Dakota Column’s route into Montana, and figures who shaped and took part in these events including George A. Custer, Sitting Bull, General Alfred Terry, the scout Bloody Knife, President Ulysses S. Grant, Major Marcus Reno, riverboat captain Grant Marsh, and others.

  Program is free and open to the general public.

  
  

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• Celebrate America's 250th birthday!

  • When
    July 04, 2026

  The Bismarck Historical Society has no program scheduled for this month but does invite you to participate in the events that will be held in Bismarck and throughout the state during our nation's 250th birthday celebration.

  Link to some of the events: North Dakota's Celebration of America's 250th

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