Chief Looking's Village site (32BL3)
a.k.a. Ward Earth Lodge Village 32BL3
Eastern edge of Pioneer Park, Bismarck, NDThe Ward Earth Lodge Village has never been cultivated, nor has it been severely damaged by vandalism or archeological excavations. The site would prove to be a useful archeological laboratory for those interested in Plains Indian life-ways. The Heart River Phase, 1675-1780, was the apex of Mandan cultural development. With the increasingly rapid expansion of the cities of Bismarck and Mandan, the Ward Earth Lodge Village will increase in significance as other examples of the Heart River Phase villages are destroyed.
An hypothesis can be offered which identifies the Ward Earth Lodge Village as a town of the Nuptadi sub-tribe of the southern Mandan. The argument is based upon (1) that group's traditional area of residence being on the left, or east, bank of Missouri River and (2) upon the location of the Ward Earth Lodge Village also on the left bank. Will states that the Ward Earth Lodge Village had been identified as the town of a chief known as "Looking" (Will 1924: 315), but the reliability of this observation is open to question.
Archeological excavation of three earth lodge floors at the site revealed what appeared to be sub-rectangular (not circular) lodge floors. These excavations suggest Ward Earth Lodge Village may be transitional architecturally, and perhaps temporally between the preceding Huff Phase (long, rectangular floors) and the fully developed Heart River Phase with circular floors. Re-excavation of these floors with modern techniques would help resolve the question. Furthermore, the scientific potential of excavating a burned lodge, the standing structure of which is known in detail, has been recognized.
The lodges built in 1934 have all been destroyed. However, the Ward Village lodges were an early example of attempts to conserve and interpret the legacy of prehistoric inhabitants of the Plains in recognition of their contribution to our national heritage.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.