What is North Dakota’s maritime heritage?
The waterways of North Dakota have been highways for trade and travel for about 11,000 years when people first moved to the region. The earliest people were nomadic hunters and gatherers while people from later time periods were semi-sedentary. Beginning about 1,000 years ago, the Mandan tribe established permanent villages and a horticultural and trading economy among the Plains Indians along the upper Missouri River and its tributaries. The trader Pierre de la Verendrye is thought to be the first Euro-American to visit the region when he traveled to Mandan villages on the upper Missouri River in 1738. Euro-American contacts increased slowly until after the region was mapped by David Thompson in the winter of 1797-1798 and the Lewis and Clark Expedition visited in the winter of 1804-1805. Early Euro-American settlements included trading posts like Pembina on the Red River, which was a key trade route for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Fort Clark and Fort Union on the Missouri River. La
