314 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull, ei 



the cause that the Bulls were all run away, bofore the Nation could get together, 

 vhirli was a groat Injury to the Publick.' 



Lewis and Clark rofor to theso luoii as follows: 



Those people have Some brave men wliich they make use of as Soldiers those men 

 attend to the police of the Village Correct all errors I saw one of them today wliip 2 

 Squars, who appeared to have fallen out, when he approach*', all about appeared to 

 flee with great turrow [terror], at night they keep two 3, 4, 5 men at different Dis- 

 tances walldng around Camp Singing the accurrunces of the night ^ 



The aki'cita are mentioned also by many writers on the tribes of 

 the Plains. Rev. J. Owen Dorsey states that '' The Akitoita, soldiers or 

 guards (policemen) , form an important body among the Asiniboin 

 as they do among other Siouan tribes."^ 



Wissler states that the manner of selecting aki'cita was as follows: 

 The chiefs chose the four ''head aki'cita" from one society, who in 

 turn chose their assistants from the society to which they them- 

 selves belonged. Thus the choice of the four head aki'cita was practi- 

 cally the choice of a certain society for this duty. The selection 

 was usually made at the beginning of the summer hunt, and service 

 continued to the close of the season. It seems to have been cus- 

 tomary, but not obligatory, for the chiefs to choose from the societies 

 in rotation.^ 



Concerning the organizations of these societies, Wissler states:^ 



We find a surprising degree of uniformity in details. All were liable to be called into 

 aki''<5ita service, while other societies never rendered such serWce. . . . The scheme 

 of officers is practically the same. All have from four to six lance bearers, who are the 

 most conspicuous, if not the most important personages in the society. They are 

 usually grouped in pairs, as in fact are nearly all the other officers; . . . Next in rank 

 to the two leaders stands another pair, among the cante tinza and the wiciska they are- 

 known as bonnet bearers, and among the others as pipe bearers, but their functions 

 are much the same. These two ranking pairs are sometimes spoken of as the four 

 chiefs in charge of the organization. There are two whip bearers in all [the societies] 

 except the kaqgi^yuha. ... As to food passers, drummers, and singers, there is 

 general uniformity throughout. It is thus clear that whatever may have been the 

 origin of these societies, they were all brou,:^nt to an approximation of the one type. 



FOX SOCIETY 



In his account of the Tokaia, or Kit-fox society, Wissler says:* 



The society is so named because its members are supposed to be as active and wily 

 on the warpath as this little animal is known to be in his native state. . . . The 

 members wear a kit-fox skin around the neck, the head before, the tail behind. To 



1 Hennepin, Father Louis, A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America (reprinted from the second 

 London issue of 1098), Reuben Gold Thwaites ed., I, p. 280, Chicago, 1903. 



2 Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, op. cit., 1, p. 168. 



' Dorsey, James Owen, Siouan Sociology, Fifteenth Rep. Bur. Ethn.,p. 224, Washington, 1894. 

 < Wissler, Clark, Societies and Ceremonial Associations in the Oglala Division of the Telon- Dakota, 

 op. cit.,xi, pt. l,p. 10. 

 'Ibid., p. 63. 

 •Ibid., pp. 14-23. 



