Statement of Significance (as of designation - February 18, 1997):
Archeological information about the earliest culture history of today's Mandan and Hidatsa peoples is preserved in the Vanderbilt Village Site. They began to transform their environment along the Missouri River floodplain near the Cannonball River around 1000 A.D. by expanding their horticultural economy with permanent villages, substantial houses, and more complex technologies. By 1400 A.D., the Vanderbilt Village was a well-established, dynamic community within which its people lived comfortably, traded, hunted, fished, and created a highly developed clan tradition with neighboring villages.