Mandan1
/ˈmandən
/A city in south central North Dakota, a northwestern suburb of Bismarck; population 18,091 (est. 2008).
Mandan2
/ˈmand(ə)n
/noun (plural same or Mandans)
1A member of an American Indian people formerly living along the northern reaches of the Missouri River.He met the Crows in June 1805 at the Knife River villages of the Mandans and Hidatsas on the upper Missouri....
- Here, in 1805, the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark noted numerous village sites forsaken by the Mandans and Hidatsas ‘about 25 years' earlier.
- Extended stays at Fort McKenzie and Fort Union and a five-month visit among the Mandans and Hidatsas afforded an unprecedented opportunity to document the people, traditions, and history of the upper Missouri region.
2 [mass noun] The Siouan language of the Mandan, now virtually extinct.
adjective
Relating to the Mandan or their language.Over the next two months the expedition constructed Fort Mandan, which they named in honor of the Mandan people....
- Born at the Mandan villages in February 1805, Baptiste traveled to the Pacific and back, was baptized in 1809, attended St. Louis boarding schools, and traveled with a German nobleman to Europe, where he learned several languages.
- The entire two-month journey from the Mandan villages where the corps wintered was easy compared to the portage the men would undertake after finding the Great Falls of the Missouri on June 13, 1805.
Origin
From North American French Mandane, probably from Dakota Sioux mawátãna.