SOCIETIES (OKO'LAKICIYE) 



Two classes of societies existed among the Sioux — dream societies 

 and military societies. Both classes are mentioned by Haydcn, one 

 of the earliest writers on the Indians of the upper plains. Hay den 

 enumerates the Sioux societies as the "Bull Head, Elk, and Bear" 

 (the first being properly translated "buffalo" and all being dream 

 societies); also the "Scalp, Strong Heart, Fox, Big Owl, and Sol- 

 dier." ^ In every instance the Sioux equivalent is given, identifying 

 the societies with organizations of comparatively recent times. 



Societies based on dreams (known as "dream societies") were 

 composed of men who, in their fasting visions, had seen the same 

 animal. The common experience of the vision bound the men 

 together and societies were thus formed. These societies had their 

 meetings, to which were admitted only those who had dreamed of 

 the animal for which the society was named. Concerning these so- 

 cieties Miss Fletcher writes: ' 



Among the Sioiian family of Indians there are societies, religious in character, 

 which are distinguished by the name of some animal. . . . Membership in these 

 societies is not confined to any particular gens, or grouping of gens, but depends upon 

 supernatural indications over which the individual has no control. The animal 

 which appears to a man in a vision during his religious fasting determines to which 

 society he must belong.^ 



Among the Teton Sioux there are some societies which belong 

 unmistakably to one of these groups and others which, according to 

 the writer's informants, probably had their origin in a dream of 

 the name-animal, but are now open to men who have distinguished 

 themselves in war. Thus the Elk and the Buffalo are distinctly 

 dream societies, and the Strong Heart, Miwa'tani, and White Horse 

 Riders are distinctly mihtary in character, while the great military 

 society of the Kar)gi'yuha is said to have originated in a dream of 

 an owl. The writer secured an account of a dream of a wolf, but 

 the terms "Wolf society" and "Fox society" seem to some extent 

 "interchangeable at the present time. Mention was made of a Horse 

 society, but no dream of a horse was recorded; it was, however, a 

 dream society, and is included by Wissler in his hst of " dream cults" 



1 Hayden, F. V., Ethnography and Philology of the In'dian'Tribes of the Missouri Valley, p. 2S1, Phila- 

 delphia, 1S62. 



2 Fletcher, Alice C., The Elk Mystery or Festival. Ogallala Sioux, in Reps. Peabody Museum, m, pp. 276, 

 277, Cambridge,' 1887. Of. also Wissler, Clark, Societies arid Ceremonial Associations of the Teton-Dakota, 

 AnthT. Papers, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., xi, pt. 1, pp. 81-98, New York, 1912. 



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