DENSMORE] TETON SIOUX MUSIC 285 



among the Oglala.^ Mention of "horse songs" is made also by 

 Dorse}'. - 



It is probable that these societies held no regular meetings, and 

 that no new members of the military organizations had been 

 elected during a period of about 30 years prior to the collecting 

 of this material. It is impossible, therefore, to secure much reliable 

 information on the history of these societies among the Teton Sioux. 



Dream Societies 

 buffalo society 

 Concerning the Buffalo society Dr. Lowie writes: 



Among the Santee the men performing the Buffalo dance [Tata°''k watcipi] had 

 had visions of the buffalo, though apparently the sons of such men were also entitled 

 to join. One man might dream that he ... had been shot by an arrow so that he 

 could barely get home. . . . Such a man painted himself vermilion to represent 

 the trickling down of the blood. Another man dreamed of being shot with a gun. 

 Such a one would act out Ms dream during a Buffalo dance. ^ 



Catlin mentions the Buffalo dance in one of his letters,* stating 

 that he witnessed it at Fort SneUing, Minn. The writer saw a 

 Buffalo dance at Bull Head, S. Dak., on the Fourth of July, 1913. In 

 this dance it is customary for the dancers to wear headdresses 

 adorned with buffalo horns, and to imitate the actions of buffalo. 

 A shield carried in the buffalo dance is shown in plate 43. 



The following songs were said to have been sung in the Buffalo 

 society. Some of these songs were said to have been received, or 

 .composed, in a dream of buffalo, but the story of the dream had been 

 forgotten, only the songs remaining as a tradition in the tribe. 



ilbid.,p. 95. 



2 In Eleventh Rep. Bur. Ethn., p. 479. 



3 Lowie, Robert H., Dance Associations of the Eastern Dakota, Anthr. Papers, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.,' 

 XI, pt. 2, p. 119, New York, 1913. 



* Catlin, George, The Maimers, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indian, vol. 2, p. 35, 

 London, 1841. 



