Between the Floods - (Civilization of the American Indian) by Mark Van de Logt

About the Book

Enhanced with the insights of archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology, and illustrated with Native maps and ledger art, as well as historic photographs and drawings, Between the Floods brings unprecedented depth, detail, and authenticity to its picture of the Arikaras in the fullness and living presence of their history.

Book Synopsis

The creation story of the Sahnis, or Arikara, people begins with a terrible flood, sent by the Great Chief Above to renew the world. Many generations later, another devastating flood nearly destroyed the Arikaras when the newly built Garrison Dam swamped the fertile land of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Between the Floods tells the story of this powerful Great Plains nation from its mythic origins to the modern era, tracing the path of the Arikaras through the oral traditions and oral histories that preserve and illuminate their past.

The Arikaras, like their Hidatsa and Mandan neighbors on the northern plains, lived as both farmers and hunter-gatherers, growing corn and hunting buffalo. Pressure on their villages from other nations, including the Lakhotas, forced displacements and relocations, and once Euro-Americans entered their domain--French fur-traders, the Spanish, and especially Americans after Lewis and Clark--the Arikaras' strategic location on the Missouri River became both an asset and a liability.

Between the Floods follows this resilient semi-sedentary people in their migration and settlement as they confront the challenges of white incursions, tribal conflicts, foreign diseases, the slave trade, and the introduction of horses and metal tools. In the Arikaras' oral traditions and histories, Mark van de Logt finds a key to their distant past as well as the cultural underpinnings of their resilience and persistence, as faith in their great prophet, Mother Corn, guides them and inspires hope for the future.

Enhanced with the insights of archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology, and illustrated with Native maps and ledger art, as well as historic photographs and drawings, Between the Floods brings unprecedented depth, detail, and authenticity to its picture of the Arikaras in the fullness and living presence of their history.

Review Quotes

"Van de Logt's book is a testament to strength in the face of tragedy and an invitation for other historians."-- Roundup, Western Writers of America


"Between the Floods presents the vast history of my people, the Arikara/Sahnish, through the stories of my ancestors and information about them. I hope scholarship on our history and culture will continue so all may get to know who we are."--Loren Yellow Bird Sr. (Arikara Nation), Arikara historian and National Park Ranger


"The long wait for a comprehensive Arikara history is over. Mark van de Logt has crafted a book that is sensitive, thorough, and essential, with Native voices resounding throughout."--Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People


"This lavish chronicle of the Arikara world breaks new ground, exploring how mythological texts preserve ancient history and centering oral accounts of the Arikara people. Between the Floods is an epic record of the life span of a nation."-- Roger Echo-Hawk, author of The Enchanted Mirror, a three-volume history of Pawneeland