Medicine Hole remains sacred for tribes in North Dakota

Medicine Hole, a sacred site near Killsdeer, North Dakota, plays an important role in tribal history.

Medicine Hole is the place where the first bison emerged in the Plains. It's also the place where members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation went to fast, pray and get medicine, said Alyce Spotted Bear, the vice president of Native American studies at Fort Berthold Community College.

“It's actually very moving when you get up there, you can see all over -- the landscape is extraordinary and like for me, I just had a feeling of reverence because I was told it was sacred and it was a place where our people went to fast and pray,” Spotted Bear told The Dickinson Press.

The site also plays a role in a military campaign. General Alfred Sully attacked a camp of the Sioux Nation on July 28, 1864 but legend holds that tribal members got away through an underground cave network at the opening of Medicine Hole.

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Medicine Hole (The Dickinson Press 4/22)
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