312 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull, ei 



Among the Arapaho : 



Among the Arapaho the organization was called Blni'nina, "Warriors," and con- 

 sisted of eight degrees or orders, including nearly all the men of the tribe above the 

 age of about 17. ' 



Among the Cheyenne: 



These warriors he [the Great Prophet] grouped into five societies, who, with the 

 chief, were responsible for the conduct of the tribe. The societies were called the 

 Red-Shield, IIoof-Rattle, Coyote, Dog-Men's, and Inverted or Bow-String.^ 



Among the Omaha : 



There were two classes of societies among the Omaha — social and secret. Member- 

 ship in the social class was open to those able to perform the acts required for eligi- 

 bility. To this class belong the warrior societies, as well as those for social purposes 

 only. [This is followed by an extended consideration of the war societies.]^ 



Among the Blackfeet: 



[The] association of the All Comrades consisted of a dozen or more secret societies, 

 graded according to age, the whole constituting an association which was in part 

 benevolent and helpful and in part military, but whose main function was to punish 

 offenses against society at large.* 



Tliis association appears to resemble that of the Aki'cita among 

 several otlier tribes. (See pp. 313, 314.) 



Lewis and Clark made what is probably the first recorded mention 

 of societies among the men of the Sioux tribe. Under date of August 

 30, 1804, their Journal contains the following section written by 

 Clark: 5 



I mil here remark a SOCIETY which I had never before this day heard was in 

 any nation of Indians, four of which is at this time present and all who remain of this 

 Band. Those who become Members of this Society must be brave active young men 

 who take a Vow never to give back let the danger be what it may, in War Parties they 

 always go forward without screening themselves behind trees or anything else to 

 tliis Vow they Strictly adhier dureing their Lives, an instance which happened not 

 long sence, on a party in Crossing the II Missourie on the ice, a whole was in the ice 

 imediately in their Course which might easily have been avoided by going around, 

 the foremost man went on and was lost the others wer draged around by the party, 

 in a battle with the Crow (Kite) Indians who inhabit the Cout Noir or Black Mountain 

 out of 22 of tliis Society 18 was killed, the remaining four was draged off by their 

 Party. Those men are likely fellows the[y] Set together Camp & Dance together. 

 Tliis Society is an imitation of the Societies of the de Curbo or Crow {De Corbeau, 

 Kite) Indians, whom they imitate. 



This evidently refers to one of the military societies of the tribe, 

 and the action described is that of the Aki'cita. An old man on the 

 Standmg Rock Reservation said to the writer, "Many military soci- 



1 Mooney, James, The Ghost Dance Religion, Fourteenth Rep. Bur. Ethn.,pt. 2, p. 986, Washington, 1896. 



2 Dorsey, George A., The Cheyenne, Field Columb. Mm. Pub. 99, Anthr. Ser. ,ix, No. 1 , p. 15, Chicago, 1905. 



3 Fletcher, Alice C, and La Flesche, Francis, The Omaha Tribe, Twenty-seventh Rep. Bur. Ethn., pp. 

 459-486, Washington, 1911. 



* Grinnell, George Bird, lUackfoot Lodge Tales, p. 220, New York, 1S92. 



6 Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, 

 I, p. 130, New York, 1904. 



