Unlike their Siouan speaking kin and often enemies, the Lakota, the Mandan were sedentary, dwelling in large villages of roomy earth lodges surrounded by palisades. Said to have once lived in Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, like other Siouan tribes, they were pushed across the Mississippi by Algonquian and long range marauding Haudenosaunee warriors. Warring with other tribes across the Mississippi River, the Mandan slowly migrated up the Missouri River into what is now North Dakota. While many of these sedentary former woodland Indians such as the Absaroka, Cheyenne and Lakota forgot the corn and took to full time Buffalo hunting, even more so after the re-introduction of the horse to the Great Plains, the Mandan along with the Arikara, Hidatsa and Pawnee remained village dwelling farmers and part time hunters.
When early 18th century French traders encountered the Mandan, the tribe, it was said to had numbered several thousand living in villages along the upper Missouri River. The French also reported these Mandan already owned horses. In 1804, Mandan hospitality, sheltered and fed the Lewis and Clark expedition during the harsh winter. Almost 30 years later the Mandan were visited by early American artist George Catlin.
From that first French encounter to 1837, The Mandan were greatly reduced by several smallpox epidemics, the last one almost over night leaving only 130 people alive out of around 2000.
Out of all the explorers and traders, artist George Catlin described these Mandan and their culture through his journal and paintings. In recording this culture, Catlin also went into some detail concerning the Mandans most important ceremony - Okipa or Okeepa.
The four day Okipa ceremony opened by a spiritual leader acting as the Lone Man, recited Mandan history and legend before a long dance by the Buffalo Society.
Inside the large Okipa lodge there were young men who had been fasting and readying themselves for ritual torture overseen by a medicine man known as Speckled Eagle and his assistants. Skewered through the chest, back, sometimes arms and thighs, they were suspended from roof beams and weighed down by buffalo skulls suspended from them, They hung until loosing consciousness or having the skewers tear free. Upon the floor they would have visions and often had Speckled Eagle chop off one or more of their fingers as an offering to the spirits. Returning to consciousness, the young men were dragged out of the Okipa lodge and raced around the Buffalo Dancers.
The Okipa ceremony not only introduced boys into manhood, it also called in the buffalo and insured a good harvest along with overall prosperity.
