Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 29 



When it was not possible to arrive at a unanimous decision, the 

 council would endeavor to influence the minority group or a decision 

 was postponed for a later date. Because of the numerical superiority 

 of the Hidatsa-proper the other two villages frequently gave in, 

 particularly in matters concerned with the protection of the villages. 

 This led early travelers to refer to the domination of the other two 

 villages by the Hidatsa-proper. This was probably only partly true 

 for either village group could have moved away and settled at any time 

 provided they did not establish a permanent earth lodge village up- 

 stream from the Hidatsa-proper. In matters for the common good, 

 the council was an eft'ective organization. There was no tendency to 

 include Mandan representatives in the council even though the two 

 Mandan village groups lived only a few miles below the Awaxawi. 

 Instead, the two tribes maintained independent councils which met 

 jointly from time to time to discuss common problems. Each tribe 

 defended the villages of the other tribe from attack and peace treaties 

 were not entered into by one tribe unless the other was included. 

 With one exception, that of the Nuptadi who did not go upstream 

 when the other Mandan accompanied the Hidatsa groups in 1845 to 

 build Fishhook, preferring an alliance with the nearby Arikara, this 

 rule was followed until the people went onto the Fort Berthold 

 Reservation. 



This federation of Hidatsa villages served a useful function in 

 breaking down the borders between village territorial grounds, thus 

 eliminating one longstanding cause of intratribal friction. In 1750, 

 the Awaxawi controlled the river region opposite the present town of 

 Washburn and hunted on the flats and along the small streams in that 

 region, the Awatixa controlled the Knife River valley westward to- 

 ward the Killdeer Mountains, and the Hidatsa claimed the region 

 along the Missouri upstream from the mouth of the Knife River. 

 When the three village groups settled on the Knife, however, separate 

 village hunting grounds were no longer recognized. Each group 

 hunted on the others' territories or hunting parties were comprised of 

 household groups from each of the villages. Nevertheless, the 

 Hidatsa-proper felt a prior claim to the region upstream from the 

 Knife and consistently refused to permit the AwatLxa, the Awaxawi, 

 or the Mandan to build earth lodge summer villages above them on 

 the Missouri. In 1845, because the wood had been largely consumed 

 at the Knife River, the Hidatsa-proper contemplated moving up- 

 stream to the Lower Yellowstone to join the River Crow. The 

 Awatixa, under Four Bears and Missouri, preferred to move to Fish- 

 hook Bend and there build a permanent village. The former raised 

 no objection to a village at that point since they contemplated moving 

 still farther upstream. In the spring, however, when a trading post 



