About Jasper Young Bear and The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation 

Introduction

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation is a tribe made of three Earth Lodge village cultures. During the time before the genocide these three tribes were powerful individual nations each with a separate culture, language and traditions, but they eventually banded together for mutual benefit and survival. 

They were also part of the vast trading network that spread across Turtle Island (North America) that was characterized by very developed ceremonial and social structures, as well as semi-agrarian farming techniques that engineered seeds to specific land and climate qualities.

The collective population of these tribes could be counted in the hundreds of thousands, but after the genocide their numbers fell to around 1200 souls. This tribe has now rebounded in population to 18000 members and are the only people on the Northern Plains not to join the plains nomadic culture. Though iconic to modern America, the mounted plains warrior culture really lasted only about a hundred years. This tribe plays a central role in Indian Country in modern times as a hub of powwows and ceremonies.

The Medicine Lodge Confederacy

The Medicine Lodge Confederacy (MLC) is a non-profit 501c3 organization founded in 2009. It was founded by a group of Native Americans who are predominantly members of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara (MHA) nation and who are experienced professionals and scholars from many different backgrounds and disciplines. The MLC was founded to promote the world view and lifeways of the Arkiara people and has to date seen the development of infrastructure including the Strikes, the Enemy Village and the Running Wolf Wellness Center and Cultural Survival School. The community and school work to support the revitalization of the Arikara language by introducing dialect that can produce fluent speakers through the context of modern Arkiara culture.