The site is the only documented village of earth lodges in the watershed of the Red River, and the only one that has been unambiguously affiliated with the Cheyenne tribe.

[3] The Biesterfeldt Site, in a wrong spelling named for its 1930s landowner Mr. Louis Biesterfeld,[4]: vii  is located southeast of Lisbon, on a terrace overlooking a former channel of the Sheyenne River.

[5] Bison scapula hoes,[4]: 48  two tools of fishbone,[4]: 39  shaft wrenches,[4]: 37  mauls,[4]: 35  pottery,[4]: 24–31  and other cultural artifacts, including a small amount of trade goods,[4]: 39–40  were unearthed in and near the lodges.

[4]: 54–55  Explorer and fur trader David Thompson has retold how an unnamed Cheyenne village somewhere on Sheyenne River (now assumed Biesterfeldt) was wiped out and the lodges set ablaze in battle with the Ojibwe around 1790.

[4]: 57 United States Army Captain William H. Gardner described a visit to the site in 1868, including elements of its history from surrounding Native Americans, who claimed the Cheyenne were driven out by the Dakota.

Assiniboines and Crees armed with fire weapons[6]: 12  are other enemies said to have caused the village dwellers to abandon Biesterfieldt[4]: 57  and start a new life near independent groups of Cheyennes already living west of the Missouri.

[4]: 67  The westward migration "... was motivated by settling an area advantageous for trade purposes, rich in bison, and temporarily removed from military pressure ...".

[4]: vii–ix  He and his team recovered a wide variety of artifacts, from glass beads to metal weapons (arrow points and a lance tip).