MHA Nation (Three Affiliated Tribes)

A nation today

Eroded badlands buttes of Painted Canyon seen from the I-94 rim overlook at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota.
Acroterion, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Background

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, also called the Three Affiliated Tribes, dates the start of tribal self-government to May 15, 1936. In the Garrison Dam era Congress appropriated $7.5 million in 1949, and relocation from the bottomlands finished by the fall of 1954. The 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty had recognized more than 12 million acres of the people's land before later policy cut that to under three million. The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation sits on the Missouri River in McLean, Mountrail, Dunn, McKenzie, Mercer and Ward counties and consists of 988,000 acres, of which 457,837 are owned as individual allotments or held communally by the Tribe. Government is a Tribal Business Council of six segment representatives and a chairman, drawn from the six segments: White Shield, Parshall, New Town, Four Bears, Mandaree and Twin Buttes. Tribal headquarters are at 307 5th Avenue in New Town, North Dakota. The Nation's own site counts 17,825 enrolled members as of August 20, 2026, of whom 4,994 are aged 0 to 17, 10,809 aged 18 to 59 and 2,389 aged 60 and over.

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Visit and learn

MHA Interpretive Center

New Town, North Dakota·cultural center

An interpretive center the Nation's visit page describes as a museum experience with a gift shop and a coffee shop. It now carries an exhibit on the story of Elbowoods, the community that was submerged or dismantled after the Garrison Dam, and the Nation's history page lists books on the Mandan, Hidatsa and Sahnish for sale there.

https://www.mhanation.com/visit-us/

MHA Nation (Three Affiliated Tribes)'s own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Eroded badlands buttes of Painted Canyon seen from the I-94 rim overlook at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota.Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara began governing themselves as one nation on May 15, 1936. The Nation's own history records that the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty recognized more than 12 million acres of their land, cut to under 3 million by later policy, and that building the Garrison Dam flooded and dismantled Elbowoods, their main community. Congress appropriated $7.5 million in 1949. Source

Programs

  • MHA Language Project and Culture and Language Department

    The Nation's Culture and Language Department has preserving and strengthening the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara languages among its stated goals. The MHA Language Project of 2015 to 2017 and Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College were among the bodies that led the work. The department runs weekly online and in-person classes, trains fluent speakers in modern teaching methods, and maintains a downloadable library of learning books, children's books, stories, songs, posters and research documents.

    https://www.mhanation.com/language/·language

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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