Elbowoods | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 47°35′31.9″N102°09′33.3″W / 47.592194°N 102.159250°W | |
Country | United States |
State | North Dakota |
County | McLean |
Settled | 1889 |
Established | 1893 |
Destroyed | 1954 |
Elevation | 1,740 ft (530 m) |
Elbowoods is a ghost town that was located in McLean County, North Dakota, United States, on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. It was founded in 1889 along the Missouri River as the agency seat for the reservation of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. After the creation of the Garrison Dam and Lake Sakakawea, rising water levels threatened the town, slowly engulfing its buildings until the entire town was submerged in 1954.
Elbowoods was located in McLean County, North Dakota, and was the agency seat for the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation for the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. It was located on the floodplains near the Missouri River, at an elevation of 1,740 feet (530 m). [1] North Dakota Route 8 ran through the town. [2] It was located about 5 miles (8 km) southwest of present-day White Shield. [3]
Elbowoods was first settled in 1889 as a headquarters for the reservation's agency. In 1893, a post office was established. [2] At its peak, hundreds of people lived in Elbowoods, which included a hospital, school, gas stations, and various other businesses. [4] Between 1936 and 1954, approximately 1,000 students attended the school and about 150 students graduated high school. [3] The local land on the Missouri River floodplains was well-suited for agriculture, and the reservation was largely self-sufficient as a result. [5]
The 1941–1942 Elbowoods Warriors high school basketball team and their loss at the 1942 Class B state championship was the subject of a PBS documentary released in 2019. The game was played at the high school in Minot against the Lakota Raiders. One of Elbowoods's star players, John Rabbithead, turned 20 that day and per regulations set by the North Dakota High School Athletics Association (NDHSAA), had to sit out the game. Although Elbowoods led almost the entirety of the game, Lakota won by one point scored in the last minute, for a final score of 39—38. After a revelation that Lakota's team had allowed a 20-year-old to play not just during the championship but for their entire season, Elbowoods was awarded the title in October 1942, but the year's championship was voided by the NDHSAA in November 1943. The championship title was re-awarded to Elbowoods in 2002. [5] [6]
In the 1940s, as part of the Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program, plans were drawn up to create the Garrison Dam, which would subsequently create Lake Sakakawea, for the purpose of providing hydroelectric power, irrigation, and recreation in the area. The project garnered heavy opposition from local Native American communities, particularly the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, as it would mean considerable loss of land and cultural resources. [7] The floodplains including Elbowoods and much of the agricultural land would be part of that loss. [5]
Construction proceeded regardless of the opposition. [5] In April 1953, the water was diverted towards the new dam. A ceremony celebrating the success of Garrison Dam's completion was held on June 11. [8] The flooding took about a year to reach Elbowoods itself, and water levels began to rise very slowly. Many residents did not move until the water reached their houses. [5] Some residents disinterred relatives buried in the cemeteries—about 1,500 in total—and reburied them on higher ground. [5] [9] The post office closed in the spring of 1954. [2]
The entirety of Elbowoods was eventually submerged. Residents were forced to relocate from the floodplains to the highlands, which changed their lifeways, as different crops and wildlife were available in that area. [5] About 94–98% of the reservation's arable land was inundated, and about 20% of the reservation's total land. [10] The newly-established New Town became the new agency seat and many former Elbowoods residents relocated there. [11] The Four Bears Bridge was moved from its crossing at Elbowoods to New Town. [2]
Lake Sakakawea's Elbowoods Bay was named in memory of the town. [12]
White Shield is a census-designated place (CDP) lying within the boundaries of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. It is located "on" the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in McLean County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 336 at the 2010 census. It is considered the primary community of the Arikara (Sahnish) people and is named for Chief White Shield.
New Town is a city in Mountrail County, North Dakota. The population was 2,764 at the time of the 2020 census, making it the 18th largest city in North Dakota. New Town was platted in 1950 as a replacement site for the residents of Sanish and Van Hook, as these towns were scheduled to be flooded by the creation of Lake Sakakawea, a reservoir to provide water for irrigation.
Lake Sakakawea is a large reservoir in the north central United States, impounded in 1953 by Garrison Dam, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam located in the Missouri River basin in central North Dakota. Named for the Shoshone-Hidatsa woman Sacagawea, it is the largest man-made lake located entirely within North Dakota, the second largest in the United States by area after Lake Oahe, and the third largest in the United States by volume, after Lake Mead and Lake Powell.
Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S. Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over two miles (3.2 km) in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The reservoir impounded by the dam is Lake Sakakawea, which extends to Williston and the confluence with the Yellowstone River, near the Montana border. The dam and resulting reservoir inundated approximately one-sixth (16.6%) to one-fourth (25%) of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation's land, resulting in the loss of homes, farmland, and community infrastructure for the Three Affiliated Tribes.
The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, is a federally recognized Native American Nation resulting from the alliance of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples, whose Indigenous lands ranged across the Missouri River basin extending from present day North Dakota through western Montana and Wyoming.
The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent tribe to the modern Crow in Montana.
The Arikara, also known as Sahnish, Arikaree, Ree, or Hundi, are a tribe of Native Americans in North Dakota and South Dakota. Today, they are enrolled with the Mandan and the Hidatsa as the federally recognized tribe known as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.
The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still reside in the area of the reservation; the rest reside around the United States and in Canada.
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is a North Dakota state park located 7 miles (11 km) south of Mandan, North Dakota, United States. The park is home to the replica Mandan On-A-Slant Indian Village and reconstructed military buildings including the Custer House.
The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is a U.S. Indian reservation in western North Dakota that is home for the federally recognized Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. The reservation includes lands on both sides of the Missouri River. The tribal headquarters is in New Town, the 18th largest city in North Dakota.
Four Bears Bridge is one of two bridges built over the Missouri River on the Fort Berthold Reservation in the U.S. state of North Dakota. It carries North Dakota Highway 23. The current bridge which opened in 2005 is the second largest bridge in the state and replaced an earlier bridge built in 1934. The 1934 bridge was moved in 1955 following the construction of the Garrison Dam and the creation of Lake Sakakawea.
Like-a-Fishhook Village was a Native American settlement next to Fort Berthold in North Dakota, United States, established by dissident bands of the Three Affiliated Tribes, the Mandan, Arikara and Hidatsa. Formed in 1845, it was also eventually inhabited by non-Indian traders, and became important in the trade between Natives and non-Natives in the region.
Fort Buford was a United States Army Post at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in Dakota Territory, present day North Dakota, and the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.
Van Hook is a thriving resort community built on the shores of Lake Sakakawea. The town was disbanded in the 1950s with the flooding of Lake Sakakawea and for a very short period of time was classified as a ghost town in the north central United States, located in Van Hook Township in Mountrail County, North Dakota. The original town site was mostly left not flooded when Lake Sakakawea was formed in the 1950s behind Garrison Dam.
Fort Stevenson was a frontier military fort in the 19th century in what was then Dakota Territory and what is now North Dakota. The fort was named for Thomas G. Stevenson, a Civil War general who was killed in the Battle of Spotsylvania. Chief Big John was in charge of the fort during the Battle of Little Big Horn. It was built in 1867 and abandoned in 1883.
Fort Berthold was the name of two successive forts on the upper Missouri River in present-day central-northwest North Dakota. Both were initially established as fur trading posts. The second was adapted as a post for the U.S. Army. After the Army left the area, having subdued Native Americans, the fort was used by the US as the Indian Agency for the regional Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan Affiliated Tribes and their reservation.
Crow Flies High State Recreation Area is a scenic overlook located two miles west of New Town in Mountrail County, North Dakota. The site provides scenic views of Lake Sakakawea. Signs describe the location's role in local history, including its significance in the explorations of Lewis and Clark. The footprint of the drowned town of Sanish, now lost below the reservoir's waves, can be seen at times of low water.
Native Americans from various tribes lived in North Dakota before the arrival of settlers. With time, a number of treaties and agreements were signed between the Indians and the newcomers. Many of the treaties defined the domain of a specific group of Indians. The three maps below show the treaty territories of different Indians living in North Dakota and how the territories changed and diminished over time in the 19th century.
Raymond "Ray" Cross was an American attorney and law professor from the U.S. state of North Dakota. He was a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, and a former professor of American Indian Law at the University of Montana. As an attorney, Cross represented Native Americans in multiple landmark trials, including two U.S. Supreme Court cases, and successfully won a compensation claim against the U.S. government for the flooding of 156,000 acres of tribal land in North Dakota due to the construction of the Garrison Dam.
Tillie Fay Walker (July 11, 1928 – February 3, 2018), also known as Hishua Adesh (Blossoming Mint), was an American civil rights activist and community leader. She was an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. She helped recruit and organize Native American participants in the Poor People's Campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr..