Figure 40, _I_, is a diagram in vertical section of the land surface in which the gardens lie. Toward the right is seen the basin of the Missouri river.
At the extreme left is a bit of the prairie that abuts the foothills. Between are two level terraces, one eighty yards, the other and lower, one hundred and seventy-five yards in width. Four of the gardens lie in the eighty-yard terrace; field _A_, of Small Ankle; _B_ of Big Foot Bull; _E_ of Crow’s Breast, and _H_, a small bit of ground used by the Small Ankle family for a squash garden. Gardens _C_ of Small Horn; _D_ of Leggings; _F_ of Crow’s Breast; and _G_ of Cedar Woman, lie in the lower and wider terrace.
With one exception the fields are called by the names of the male heads of the families, a custom that probably began at the time allotments were first made.
The relative positions of the fields are not as shown in the figure, except of _A_ and _B_, the gardens of Small Ankle and Big Foot Bull. These are separated by a wagon road that descends to the lower terrace, as indicated on the map.
Doubtless the two terraces have been made by over-flow waters. It is likely that both are still subject to overflow at long intervals, especially the lower. The soil is light and sandy, but black and rich. The overflow of the river would seem to suggest that the land would be fertilized by silt deposited upon it; but my Indian informants seem to attach no significance to this. Fields were located near the Missouri “because the soil there is soft and easily worked, and does not become dry and burn up the crops.”
[1] Washington Matthews, _Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians_. U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey.
[2] Gilbert L. Wilson, _Myths of the Red Children_. Ginn and Company, 1907.
[3] George H. Pepper and Gilbert L. Wilson, _An Hidatsa Shrine and the Beliefs Respecting It_. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, 1908.
[4] Gilbert L. Wilson, _Goodbird, the Indian: His Story_. Fleming H. Revell Co. 1914.
[5] “In the garden vegetable family are five; corn, beans, squashes, sunflowers, and tobacco. The seeds of all these plants were brought up from beneath the ground by the Mandan people.
“Now the corn, as we believe, has an enemy—the sun who tries to burn the corn. But at night, when the sun has gone down, the corn has magic power. It is the corn that brings the night moistures—the early morning mist and fog, and the dew—as you can see yourself in the morning from the water dripping from the corn leaves. Thus the corn grows and keeps on until it is ripe.