Cultivators: Buffalo Bird Woman

Buffalo Bird Woman (c. 1839-1932), also known as Maxidiwiac, was a Hidatsa woman whose recollections on traditional Hidatsa culture, customs, and especially agricultural knowledge, were written down and preserved through interviews at the turn of the 20th century.

For Further Reading: 

• Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden
• Stories Behind Objects, Maxi’diwiac
• Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, Maxidiwiac (Buffalo-Bird Woman)

This month, we’re talking about cultivators — women who nurtured, cross-pollinated, experimented, or went to great lengths to better understand and protect the natural world.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello. My name is Malia Agudello and I'm a production
assistant at Wonder Media Network and I'm so excited to
be guest hosting this episode of Womanica. This month, we're
talking about cultivators, women who nurtured, cross pollinated, experimented, or
went to great links to better understand and protect the
natural world. Today's Will Mannequin spent her life caring for

(00:27):
corn and sunflowers. An expert in giving back to the
very land that fed her from soil to seed to crop,
she dedicated her life to preserving ancestral knowledge to share
with future generations. Let's talk about Buffalo Bird Woman. Much
of what we know about Buffalo Bird Woman and about

(00:49):
Haidatsa traditional ways come from a series of her own recollections,
interpreted by her son and written down by a white
American ethnographer in nineteen seventeen. Buffalo Woman or Marchhidiwilla, was
born in eighteen thirty nine in what is now known
as North Dakota. She was part of the Hidatsa tribe
who inhabited the land at the mouth of the Knife River,

(01:11):
an offshoot of the Missouri River. The word Hidatsa is
said to mean willow, a name given by a powerful
god who promised their villagers would be as numerous as
the willows that lie in the banks of the Missouri River.
The Hidatsa lived in earth lodges durable homes built from grass, dirt,
and timber. Buffalo Bird Woman's village thrived along the Missouri River,

(01:33):
cultivating crops and practicing centuries old farming techniques. But this
was a time marked by violence towards Native people. Colonial
expansion threatened the livelihood of the Hidatsa tribe, leading to
frequent relocation and death. A smallpox epidemic decimated the community.
Those who survived the onslaught of sickness moved up the

(01:54):
Missouri River, where they established a new village whose name
translated to like a fish hook. They shared the land
with neighboring Mandan and Arikara villages. Buffalo Bird Woman was
just a child at the time of the first relocation
in her village. The lives of girls and boys were different.
Boys grew up learning how to hunt and defend against

(02:16):
enemy attacks. Girls grew up helping their mothers in the garden.
So Buffalo Bird women began learning the traditions of Hidatsa
agriculture from the women and her family. She learned how
to properly clear fields to create new plots for gardens.
The village's proximity to the river made the soil rich
and fertile for growing. She observed the women gardeners as

(02:39):
they cut and burned fields of long grass. They carried
heavy iron hose and wooden digging sticks made from buffalo
bones and the antlers of black tailed deer. She watched
them dig and soften the soil into rows, readying the
fields to plant corn. She witnessed her relative singing songs
to the corn. This came from the belief that crops

(03:07):
needed love and caring, just as children did. So while
women watched the fields to ensure birds, horses, or other
people didn't disturb the crops, they sang to the growing
corn as they would to growing children. As Buffalo Bird
Woman grew up, she put her knowledge to use. She
spent intimate time in the sunflower fields, scooping the soil,

(03:31):
using her thumbs to press seedlings into the earth. Every
year they had datsa planted their flowers under the sunflower
planting moon. They were the first seeds of spring. Day
in and day out. Buffalo Bird Women spent her time
in the fields, tending to crops, processing harvests, and storing
food for the harsh winters ahead. Buffalo Bird Women lived

(03:53):
in like a fish hook into her adult years. In
eighteen sixty nine, she had a son known as Edward
Good Bird. In eighteen eighty five, the Hidatsa were pushed
out of their land and forcibly relocated to Fort Beritold Reservation.
The Hidatsa were forced to leave their homes behind, which
meant parting with the land they had been cultivating for decades.

(04:15):
Buffalo Bird Woman spent the majority of her life on
the Fort Berthold Reservation. Her son was sent to missionary
school and became a pastor. He created a relationship with
Gilbert Wilson, a white American ethnographer from Ohio. Wilson was
determined to document Hidatsa life and customs. Over a series
of summers, Gilbert traveled to the reservation to conduct interviews

(04:36):
with Buffalo Birdwoman and her son, who served as their translator.
Over their many visits, Buffalo bird Woman opened up to Gilbert.
She described methods for cooking fresh green corn, explained Hidatza
cultural teachings, planting techniques and how to handle the garden's
first frost. She shared practices for cultivating beans and saving

(04:56):
the season's best seeds for the next year. Worms, tobacco, squash, blossoms,
culinary techniques, and singing in the garden were some of
the many themes that Buffalo bird Women expanded upon in
their interviews. She emphasized how the harsh effects of forced
reservation were reflected agriculturally. She said, seeds were issued to

(05:16):
us of watermelons, big squashes, onions, turnips, and other vegetables.
Some of these we tried to eat, but did not
like them very well. Even the turnips and big squashes
we thought not so good as our own. Moreover, we
did not know how to dry these new vegetables for winter,
so we often did not trouble even to harvest them.

(05:41):
In nineteen seventeen, Gilbert published Buffalo Bird Woman's recollections in
the Social Sciences academic journal. There is a deep pain
in Buffalo Bird Woman's stories. She stewarded agricultural knowledge for
generations to come, but she also expressed the devastating impacts
of colonial power, forced assimilation, and indigenous erasure. Her narrative

(06:03):
must be seen in all of its layers. Buffalo bird
Woman's work ensured that the Hedatta agricultural knowledge would not
be lost to time. Buffalo bird Woman passed away in
nineteen thirty two. All month, we're talking about cultivators. For
more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast.

(06:26):
Thanks to co creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for letting
me guest host. As always, we're taking a break for
the weekend. Talk to you Monday.