Archival Insight: The Archaeology of Native Cabins, Critical Fabulation, and Interpreting Survivance

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In the mid-19th century, the Arikara, followed by the Mandan and Hidatsa (MHA), began utilizing Euroamerican cabin-style architecture alongside and instead of earth lodges. By the late 19th century, cabins became the primary domestic structure. However, the archaeological record on cabins is lacking compared to the archival and ethnographic records. The existing record mainly consists of reports summarizing findings and detailing construction methods rather than interpreting Native life. Building from the data provided by these reports, this paper aims to produce a more comprehensive portrayal of Native life during the mid-to-late 19th century, a tumultuous period of settler colonialism on the Plains. Through the combination of other sources (ethnographic, archival, photographic) with archaeology and the use of methods like critical fabulation, this paper uncovers stories of Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara resilience and survivance to redress salvage narratives of change and loss.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow