Camas earth oven
A temporary, in-place earthen oven used to cook camas with heat retained by fire-heated stones. The dimensions described here belong to one Kalispel-supervised reconstruction, not a universal form.
Built structures · Pits and cavities
Hidatsa cache pit
A Hidatsa underground storage chamber described by Buffalo Bird Woman in a first-person account published in 1917: a narrow-necked, jug-shaped pit lined with dry willow and grass, used to protect stored crops and other provisions.
Place and account
A cache pit was an underground food store used by Hidatsa families in villages along the Missouri River. Buffalo Bird Woman, also known as Maxi´diwiac, described her family’s use in an account recorded by Gilbert Livingstone Wilson and published by the University of Minnesota in 1917. She recalled storing ripe corn, beans, sunflower seed and dried squash for winter, as well as meat and bone grease at other times of year. Her account is a specific first-person record, not a claim that every Hidatsa household used an identical pit.
Her account recalls family use through the nineteenth century, including a particular episode around 1877; it does not date the beginning of cache-pit practice. The National Park Service likewise presents the structure as an underground earthen store and names the family’s winter crops. These records document food storage and protection from dampness, not a fermentation process.
Below-ground form and lining
Buffalo Bird Woman compared the chamber to a jug: a relatively narrow opening led down into a wider body. She said the mouth was commonly about two feet across, while noting larger openings and differences between pits. In one family account, the broad lower part was sized to fit a bull-boat cover; the recorded measurements belong to that example and should not be treated as a standard specification.
The pit was lined with dry materials. The floor was made from dead, dry willow sticks. Dried grass covered the floor and walls, with willow rods and forked wooden pins holding the wall lining in place. The account says the willow was kept dry and explains that a particular grass gathered near springs and watercourses was chosen because other kinds had molded in repeated trials. A piece of hide or a bull-boat skin could cover the bottom.
Sources for this section
Stores and the reason for their arrangement
The family’s packing arrangement used more than one kind of store. Braided ears of corn were placed around the chamber’s wall, with loose kernels filling the interior spaces. Dried squash was coiled in the center and surrounded by loose corn. Buffalo Bird Woman explicitly explained that the ripe corn helped shield dried squash from dampness because the squash spoiled more readily in her experience. The drawings accompanying her account show a plan and cross-section of this arrangement.
She also describes skin bags of beans in some pits and records dried turnips, berries, meat and other provisions in particular stores. Those examples show that a cache could hold different household supplies; they do not mean every pit had the same contents. The attached historical drawings are the specific references for the pit’s exposed below-ground shape and one documented packing layout.
Sources for this section
Closure, reuse and limits
For smaller pits, the account describes split-log planks, called puncheons, resting in a trench across the mouth; grass, a hide cover and earth finished the closure. It gives a different arrangement for larger openings. The pit was made level with the surrounding ground, and the narrator says pits could be reused year after year. One pit was abandoned after mice got into it, a reminder that the account reports particular successes and failures rather than a guarantee of storage life.
This page describes a historically documented Hidatsa structure, not a current construction plan or food-safety method. It supplies no modern validation for keeping food at safe moisture, pest protection, or shelf life. The linked recipe records for Hidatsa dried squash and dried green corn show foods associated with related seasonal work; they do not prescribe this cache as a modern storage method.
Sources for this section
History
Buffalo Bird Woman's first-person account describes her family's cache pits, including a remembered episode around 1877. The publication is evidence of documented family use, not the origin date of the practice.
Site
SettingHidatsa village households along the Missouri River; most pits described were outside lodges, with some inside.
GroundBelow-ground chamber with a narrow neck and a broader, jug-shaped body; its mouth was closed flush with earth.
NotesThe account gives differing sizes and closure arrangements rather than one standard plan. It says outside pits were more common because mice troubled indoor stores.
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
How it is built
Materials
- Dry willow sticks and wooden pins — The 1917 account describes a floor of dead, dry willow and vertical willow supports secured with forked willow pins.
- Dried grass — The account describes grass lining the floor and walls; the grass type is identified as one found near springs and watercourses on the reservation.
- Hide and split-wood covers — The specific account describes skin covers, including buffalo-bull hide, and split-log puncheons across the mouth; details varied by pit size.
- The documented pit began with a relatively narrow mouth and widened below ground into a jug-shaped chamber; the account says size and depth varied.
- The recorded family example used a floor of dead, dry willow sticks, dried grass over the floor and walls, and willow rods and forked pins to hold the lining in place.
- For the documented crop arrangement, braided corn was set around the wall, loose kernels filled the interior, and dried squash was coiled in the center and surrounded by corn; the account notes that other stores and arrangements varied.
- In the smaller-pit example, split-log puncheons crossed the mouth in a trench, with grass, hide and earth above; the account describes a different closure for larger openings.
Places
Missouri River villages
Historical attestation · Region evidenceThe sources support Hidatsa village use along the Missouri River, not a single mapped cache-pit site or an exact installation location.
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Sources
University of Minnesota, Studies in the Social Sciences no. 9Primary historical account
Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian InterpretationHidatsa family storage of corn, beans, sunflower seed and dried squash; pit form; willow and grass lining; crop arrangement; closures; use and limits.
Cited in: Place and account; Below-ground form and lining; Stores and the reason for their arrangement; Closure, reuse and limits
National Park ServiceHistorical context
CacheThe NPS identifies the cache as a Hidatsa underground storage structure and summarizes the crops stored for winter.
Cited in: Place and account; Stores and the reason for their arrangement; Closure, reuse and limits
Library of CongressBibliographic and rights context
Agriculture of the Hidatsa IndiansThe 1917 publication, contributors and public-domain reuse status of the digitized book.
Cited in: Place and account