OMAHA NIKIE DECORATIONS. 



409 



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Fur. 185.— Iuke-3ab6 tent decoration. 



Tliat is, "When, in my cliildliooil, I saw the tents in which 

 the people dwelt, they were of this sort. (See Fig. 1 •">•">.) I saw 

 the tent decorated with the pipes having 

 feathers attached to each pipe at right 

 angles. I saw a tent of this sort when it 

 was occnpied hy Waqaga of the Pipe sub- 

 gens. (See another tent decoration of this 

 man, § 48.) Though these pipes clo.sely 

 resemble the peace pipes (niniba wa(pibe), 

 they are made with the feathers attached 

 to the stems at right angles. These are 

 the pipes used in the pii>e dance. By 

 means of the pipes the people made for 

 themselves that which was ecpiivalent to 

 (or, lead to) the chieftainshi]). So they re- 

 garded the sacred pipes as of the greatest 

 importance. Even when the people were ' 

 very bad, even when different tribes con- 

 tinued to struggle with one another; even 

 when they shot often at one another, when some persons came forth 

 w ith the peace pipes, and bore them to a place between the opposing 



forces, carrying them all along the 

 lines, they stopped shooting at one 

 another. The Indians regarded 

 the pipes as precious." 

 ^^' f«! -. -MM A j^ada nikie tent decoration is 



^"^^ -,-^^jC^r.^ '-^ .'=iP^ ; shown in the tent of Heqaga. (PI. 



XLiv, 0.) This tent had two pipes 

 on each side of the tent, double the 

 number on the Inke-sabe tent (Fig. 

 1S4). 



Fig. 186 is given as the nikie 

 decoration of a robe belonging to 

 Waqaga. The bird on the robe is 

 an eagle. Members of the Pipe subgens of the Inke-sabc have eagle 

 birth names. And we know that Waqaga belonged to that sub gens. 



The author under.stood Joseph La Fleche and Two Crows to say, in 

 18813, that while nikie names possessed a sacredaess, it was only the 

 sacredness of antiquity, and that they were not " Wakanda^afica"." 

 But the author now thinks that such a statement needs modifica- 

 tion; for, besides what appears at the beginning of this section, we 

 know that among the Osage and Kansa the nikie names are associ- 

 ated with the traditions preserved in the secret society of seven de- 

 grees, and that this applies not only to names of gentes and sub-gentes, 

 but also to personal nikie names. The author frightened an Osage in 

 January, 1883, by mentioning in public some of this class of names. 



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Fig. IBB.— Waqaga's rube 



