Stop by 8/28/23 at the MHA Interpretive Center (atrium) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. as we are happy to host a Book Fair featuring the Gilbert Wilson Collection. Titles: The Horse & the Dog in Hidatsa Culture, The Hidatsa Earthlodge, and Hidatsa Eagle Trapping. Gilbert Wilson conducted extensive field work over the course of 12 years from 1908 to 1918 through visits with Hidatsa family informants. He was often accompanied by Frederick Wilson, who along with Edward Good Bird, provided many of the illustrations for his work. As Dr. Wilson died in 1930, much of his extensive field notes went unpublished until they were edited and arranged by Bella Weitzer and published by the American Museum of Natural History. The last printing of these books was in the mid-1900s, the MHA Interpretive Center is proud to have successfully got these books reprinted.

*There will also be 20% off on a selected number of books!

"When it was evident that a lodge needed to be torn down the women invited five or six women who were blood relatives. It was always done in the spring before the gardens were planted. A clam day was always selected for the tear down because the Hidatsa always observed that wind always followed the tearing down of an earthlodge. This was because of the belief that earth lodges have spirits."

-excerpt from The Hidatsa Earthlodge by Gilbert L. Wilson