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L.L.B. Be an outsider. I was born in the earth lodge by the mouth of the Knif River, three years after the Small

Pox Winter of 1837.

Small ankle my father named me, my father

my kiddiwhe or buffalo bird woman.

I do not know why my father chose his name.

The spirits of the birds we thought had much holy power.

I'm still called by the name my father gave me.

And as I have lived to be a very old woman, I think it has brought me good luck. In the middle of North Dakota, one of the least visited states in the nation sits one of the smallest and least visited national park service sites.

It's the place where Earth Lodge people, the Hedatsa and Mandan, lived along the Missouri River

and its tributaries to hunt bison and other game.

The site was a major Native American trade center for hundreds of years prior to becoming

an important marketplace for fur trade after 1750.

I'm Jason Epperson and today on America's National Parks,

the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

and the story of Buffalo Bird Woman, one of the last

hadatas born in the Knife River villages in her own words as portrayed by

...