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The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. The Mandan historically lived along both banks of the Upper Missouri River and two of its tributaries, the Heart and Knife rivers, in present-day North and South Dakota. Speakers of Mandan, a Siouan language, they developed a settled, agrarian culture. They established permanent villages featuring large, round, earth lodges, surrounding a central plaza. Matrilineal families lived in the lodges. The Mandan were a great trading nation, trading especially their large corn surpluses with other tribes in exchange for bison meat and fat. Voyage dans l'interieur de l'Amerique du Nord, execute pendant les annees 1832-34. Karl Bodmer (February 11, 1809, October 30, 1893) was a Swiss printmaker, lithographer, painter, illustrator and hunter.