VI PREFACE 



the Earthnaming bundle owners from whom I could secure data 

 concerning the Earthnaming ceremony for Poor Wolf, having no sons, 

 had not given his daughter, Mrs. White Duck, a coherent picture of 

 this important ceremony. When I drove up to Four Dancers' home 

 he was quite surprised when I addressed him in the Hidatsa language 

 and told him why I was there. We talked a while and then he 

 said, laughing, "You talk just like an Awaxawi." All my associations 

 with him were without the aid of an interpreter. Even at this late 

 date, after nearly a century of living together, the older people stUl 

 had slight dialectic differences which they associated with the various 

 original community groups. I took down everything he said in 

 Hidatsa text and we got along very well together. He gave me much 

 valuable data on the Earthnaming and related ceremonies that the 

 other informants were unable to provide. I learned from him much 

 about the internal stresses that so often got out of hand and led to 

 the disruption of communities, such as had occurred when the Crow- 

 Flies-High group, with Four Dancers' father as ceremonial leader, 

 had moved out of Fishhook Village to Fort Buford when he was a 

 small boy. 



The weakness of this study is in part due to the few convenient 

 and outstanding female informants near my headquarters. I relied 

 entirely on Mrs. Good Bear — she addressed me as "gi*andfather" — for 

 information on those ceremonies in which she had participated with 

 her husband. Most of the information on the Sun Dance came from 

 her. She also contributed much material on lodge groups with 

 which she was familiar, both Mandan and Hidatsa. I relied on Mrs. 

 White Duck — I called her "father's sister" and she called me "son" — 

 for an understanding of the woman's role in Hidatsa community 

 life. She told me very early in my study with her that she thought 

 the woman's role in warfare was as important for the success of the 

 expedition as those who were away to war, and that the success or 

 failure of a war party depended as much on what women at home did 

 while the warriors were out as on what their male relatives looking 

 for their enemies did. I learned much from her, and what I have 

 written of the woman's role is largely her contribution. 



I did not use Crows Heart very much during the initial study 

 except for those ceremonies that were clearly of Hidatsa origin, since 

 he came from a mixed Mandan-Hidatsa household. However, during 

 the summer of 1947 I spent several weeks with him recording his 

 autobiography, and I did draw heavily from these notes for an inter- 

 pretation of many aspects of Hidatsa culture. He was the first of 

 my informants to apply their kinship terminology to me, calling 

 me "younger brother." 



