Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 5 



I could not have inter\dewed on any aspect of their culture; any 

 gaps in our knowledge of Hidatsa social and ceremonial life are of 

 my own oversight. 



From my experiences with the Mandan, I decided to investigate 

 household and kinship ties first and then relate sacred bundles and 

 rites to households and lineages. The Government census and tribal 

 roles for 1870 and 1880 were obtained in advance, studied, and par- 

 tially memorized. Without revealing this fact to my informants, 

 I then made up my own census as of about 1872, using Bears Arm, 

 Mrs. White Duck, and Mrs. Good Bear as informants. This was the 

 only instance in which I used several informants simultaneously. 

 This census by households was taken by securing, first of all, the 

 names and relationships of the occupants of the three informants' 

 own households and then moving to those households to which they 

 had been related or where they visited most. These three inform- 

 ants finally came to a number of households about which little was 

 known, and information on them was secured from other informants. 

 On the basis of the principal occupants of these household groups, 

 extensive genealogies were then made extending family lines back 

 to the three contemporary villages at the mouth of Knife River, 

 Rock Village, and a fifth community area near Square Buttes of 

 which my informants knew little. Residence at Scattered Village 

 (Awatixa) on the north bank of the Heart River at Mandan, N. Dak., 

 was not borne out by these genealogies. However, the data on 

 household groupings is in essential agreement with the Government 

 records when one takes into account the fact that the small log cabin 

 was introduced at this time — what the Government counted as two 

 or more households (lodges set side by side, perhaps joined by a 

 hallway) my Indian informants counted as a single household. 



The next step was to establish the clan membership of all indi- 

 viduals reported, the approximate age of each person, village of 

 birth, and all known tribal and personal sacred bundles and rites in 

 which the individual had held ownership and special roles. Most 

 of this was known in a general way, at least, through ritual obser- 

 vations or by word of mouth. Nevertheless, inquiries with other 

 informants brought out further information about certain lesser 

 known bundles, especially those of a personal nature. 



Understanding the social position of mixed families, where the 

 husband and wife were of different tribes (primarily Crow, Mandan, 

 Arikara, and Assiniboin) was more difficult. In one instance, the 

 husband would be a Mandan and in another, a Hidatsa, but no 

 rule of residence seemed to apply. It was finally eptabhshed that mixed 

 households should be classified as Hidatsa only in those instances 

 in which they participated primarily in Hidatsa activities. I had 



710-1«5 — 65 2 



