ADMINISTRATIVE REPOET XCIX 



the dog, whicli was used for draft and burden and as a source 

 of food, as well as for protection by night, and that no other 

 animals were completely domesticated, though some were partly 

 tamed and kept for ceremonial purposes. It is shown also that 

 the horse was acquired about the lieginning of the present cen- 

 tury, partly from the southwestern plains, but partly from the 

 Cayuse country beyond the Rocky mountains. Incidentally 

 it is shown that the domestication of animals is not a simple 

 process, and that there is an important stage antecedent to 

 domestication proper in which the relation between animals and 

 men is collective and one of mutual toleration. 



In their mythology the Siouan Indians are typical of the 

 American aborigines, and the principal features of the myths 

 and ceremonials of the tribes are set forth clearlv and accu- 

 rately in the sketch. The description of the Siouan " waka"da" 

 is notably satisfactory, and indicates well the combination of 

 vagueness and comprehensiveness which characterizes primi- 

 tive belief 



SIOUAX SOCIOtiOGY 



A few months after the close of the fiscal year dealt with in 

 this report the Bureau and ethnologic science sustained a heavy 

 loss in the death of James Owen Dorsey, a collaborator of the 

 Bureau from its institution and a frequent contributor to the 

 reports. He had just completed a paper on the sociology of 

 the Siouan Indians, and it, with the foregoing sketch of the 

 stock, has been incorporated in the present report. 



To superficial observers, primitive peoples often appear to 

 be nothing more than unorganized masses or hordes, and the 

 latter term has been largely used by writers to express the 

 supposed unorganized condition; but more careful students of 

 the American Indians have found that the individuals and 

 groups are arranged in accordance with a remarkably elabo- 

 rate system — a system often transcending in extent and defi- 

 niteness that found among civilized people. In the absence of 

 written statutes, there are many devices for adjusting and 

 maintaining the demotic relations. Thus, among most of the 

 Siouan tribes, the clans habitually arrange themselves in a 

 certain order on making camp, and this order expresses the 



