Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

Zarya Dahl

2024-04

I absolutely love Knife River. First and foremost, all of the trails are dog friendly which is a huge plus for me. Even in the winter, it is worth a visit although they have many more activities and interactive things during the spring / summer. It is so wonderful to stand in a place where you can see where a village was and be in touch with an aspect of history that is often overlooked / forgotten. The park ranger was so sweet and recommended other sites near by that are also dog friendly, park rangers are the best!

Pete Zielinski

2023-08

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Andy Smith

2023-09

This could be so much better. Its interesting, but there is only one hut, not really a village. It takes less than half hour to do the whole site. Not a park to make a special trip for, but worth stopping if you are going along the 200.

Marie

2024-03

Wonderful exhibits and informative staff. Hands on events offered as well☺️

Joceline Lopez

2022-05

Definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area- if you plan on doing ‘everything’ here give yourself at least 2 hours to explore.There is a small museum, gift shop, as well as an interesting informative video that is played in the theatre inside of the visitors center.Outside you can find an actual earthlodge, a type of home where the Awatixa people once lived.You can do a trail (it is supposed to be a loop but part of the trail is closed due to erosion) to see the bowl shaped depressions in the ground of where all the earth lodges once stood before these people were forced to leave due to a smallpox epidemic in 1780.Ranger Emilee was very helpful and gave us a brief introduction on things for us as well as answered all of our questions.

Glenn Sackett

2023-05

This family-friendly, quick access window-into-the-past is experiential, allowing visitors to enter a replicated earth lodge, like those whose remains are still visible on the banks of the Missouri River, 1/4 mile away. The modern Visitor Center includes both touch-and-hold displays and archival, behind-the glass artifacts along with an interpretive video. Just 3 miles off the Sakakawea Trail Scenic Drive (US 83), it’s a great stop for families traveling across North Dakota’s vast rolling prairie beautiful landscape.

Barb Drewis

2023-06

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Mike Abrams

2022-05

Love the park and worth the hour trip north of the interstate. Nice visitor center, and a groomed trail to the river shows the history of the various native Americans who live on the land. Also the reconstructed living hut is an amazing thing to see.

T MILLER

2022-05

Nice National Park Historic Site in west central North Dakota detailing the history of Native American tribes of the Northern Plains. Vis Center, Earthlodge and Village Trail are worth a visit. Friendly Park Ranger Carrie was very knowledgeable and helpful on the history of the area - made my day.

Sheri Lucas

2022-05

We arrived too late to go inside the centre but it looks very informative! We walked around the outside and viewed the earth lodge, drying racks and reminisce of where the old village was. Well worth a trip back!

Mel anie

2021-05

Lovely NPS site! The visitor center had a great short film and some exhibits. The earth lodge next to the VC was interesting.The NPS employee on duty April 1 was so kind and helpful. They also had a ton of brochures and info available for the local area and other nearby NPS sites.

Jordan Marcellino

2023-06

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Paula Holen

2023-05

Very informative and friendly rangers. Great example of a native earthen hut! Nice half mile walk around the actual summer village site.

Tina

2020-05

Initially I stopped here for the cancellation stamp in my national parks book, but this stop was so much better than I expected! Easily one of my favorites. Fascinating earth house model, beautiful grassy area with visible mounds where these homes used to stand (and had collapsed), extremely helpful and kind rangers, and a great museum with lots of interesting bits of information. We even got to see some archeologists in action while we were there! Lovely and interesting place I would highly recommend to everyone!

Jonathan Smith

2023-05

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Julie Parrish

2020-05

Nife River Indian village was nice all the facilities are clean. The walking trail is great because it had great little interesting displays of their huts and way of life. We saw a spotted fawn really young right beside the trail

Arin Canbolat

2022-05

This site is so worth visiting. It is a bit out of the way, about an hour from Bismarck, but really worth the drive. If you can get Park Ranger Darian, he is full of knowledge, knowing so much about the Hidatsa, the site itself, and willing to share his knowledge and passion for the history.

Chris Berry

2023-05

Excellent film, museum, and earthen family home. All helped me understand more about the plains Native American lifestyle, Sacagawea, and the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Chris Bloomfield

2019-05

A great historical site. The rangers are friendly and informative. The earth lodge is a wonderful way for kids and adults to get a glimpse into history.

Kathleen Johnson

2023-09

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Richard Bruehahn

2022-05

Interesting place. The earth house was neat to see. The trail to the river was longer than I expected and not much to see there.

James Carroll

2023-05

Great site with an awesome trail. Movie is cool and the rangers are great.

Gail Buckland

2020-05

Small but fascinating. Well crafted display of tools and arrowheads. Nicely recreated earthlodge. The walk to the Knife River has very good display boards explaining the depressions, midden heaps and differing tribes that lived there.

Mike Christel

2021-05

Earth lodge very informative and NPS ranger handed out story sheet to complement it; some trails closed in 2020

Mike man

2024-04

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Yogi

2024-03

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Tena Holmgren

2023-07

It was an impromptu stop for my family, but absolutely fantastic. Ranger Angela was so great with my kids, helping them complete their Junior Ranger book and it is obvious that she loves her job. So, kudos to her. There were things for my kids to touch, hear, see and smell to create an authentic experience for them to learn about the Indigenous culture and history of the Hidasta and Mandan tribes. The walking trail we only did half of but it was well maintained.

Sheila Barritt

2024-04

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Charles Bohe

2023-09

I was a little disappointed with my visit, probably because I had questions that could not be answered. The exhibit of a garden was OK but could have been expanded. Not sure if my four star rating was because of my expectations or because the museum/exhibit fell short. The ideal plan would have been to plan on visiting two historic sites a day from Mandan and spending a week doing day trips out of Mandan for a week. So much history in this area. I would also reading the autobiography of Luther Kelly aka Yellowstone Kelly. A true frontiersman left out of the history books. Kelly is buried in Billings Montana outside the airport.,

Edgar Foster

2019-05

Really a neat place to visit and the displays and artifacts are fantastic. The rangers were wonderful to talk with and so informative.