Maximilian, accompanied by the artist Karl Bodmer, left St. Louis April 10, 1833, on board the steamboat _Yellow Stone_, bound for the upper Missouri. Arriving at Fort Pierre they boarded the _Assiniboin_. The _Yellow Stone_ being loaded with "7,000 buffalo skins and other furs," was to return to St. Louis. Starting from Fort Pierre June 5, they arrived at Fort Clark, among the Mandan, just two weeks later. Maximilian wrote on June 18: "At half-past seven we passed a roundish island covered with willows, and reached then the wood on the western bank, in which the winter dwellings of part of the Mandan Indian are situated; and saw, at a distance, the largest village of this tribe, Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, in the vicinity of which the whole prairie was covered with riders and pedestrians. As we drew nearer the huts of that village, Fort Clarke, lying before it, relieved by the background of the blue prairie hills, came in sight, with the gay American banner waving from the flag-staff.... The _Assiniboin_ soon lay to before the fort, against the gently sloping shore, where above 600 Indians were waiting for us." (Maximilian, (1), p. 171.) They departed from Fort Clark the following day and on June 24, "the seventy-fifth day since our departure from St. Louis," arrived at Fort Union, near the mouth of the Yellowstone. Returning to Fort Clark November 8, they remained throughout the winter, departing April 18, 1834.
During the long winter months Maximilian learned much of the manners and ways of life of the Mandan, and his records are, in many respects, to be preferred to those of Catlin. To quote his description of the Mandan towns: "Their villages are assemblages of clay huts, of greater or less extent, placed close to each other, without regard to order. Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, the largest of the Mandan villages, was about 150 or 200 paces in diameter, the second was much smaller. The circumference forms an irregular circle, and was anciently surrounded with strong posts, or palisades, which have, however, gradually disappeared as the natives used them for fuel in the cold winters. At four places, at nearly equal distances from each other, is a bastion built of clay, furnished with loop-holes, and lined both within and without with basket-work of willow branches. They form an angle, and are open towards the village; the earth is filled in between the basket-work and it is said that these bulwarks, which are now in a state of decay, were erected for the Indians by the Whites." It is curious and interesting that a similar observation should have been made by La Verendrye nearly a century before, and so the question arises, If made by Europeans, who were they? No protection or fortification of this sort was at the second and smaller village. A plan of the larger village, indicating its position on the right bank of the Missouri a short distance above Fort Clark, is given by Maximilian on page 394 and is here reproduced in figure 4. This would probably have been near the southern line of the present Mercer County, North Dakota.
