Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 35 



their leader since he was held accountable for any deaths or accidents 

 occurring during the winter. Cherry Necklace could have reinstated 

 himself in their esteem by "sacrificing" for the dead, that is, making 

 offerings of goods and fasting a short time away from the village, but 

 he chose instead to disregard the matter. Now he was chosen again 

 by the other households because there had actually been many buffaloes 

 in the vicinity of his camp aU winter but some families chose to oppose 

 him on the grounds that he had brought them bad luck intentionally 

 as proved by his disregard for their deceased relatives. Thus a stale- 

 mate developed and no compromise could be reached. They went 

 into two winter camps: one under Cherry Necklace and the majority 

 of the population together with the police organization, and the other 

 a few miles nearer the summer village. Rumor reached the un- 

 organized camp that their relatives were concerned for the safety of 

 this small group and that Cherry Necklace had pointed his pipe to 

 the north and invoked the gods of that direction to send the people 

 back by sending the buffaloes only to his camp where the long estab- 

 lished buffalo calling rites were being performed. Soon rumors also 

 reached the little camp that Cherry Necklace had also pointed his 

 pipe to the south and directed the Sioux to attack the undefended 

 camp to bring them back. When the buffaloes came south to Cherry 

 Necklace's camp but did not continue southward to the other camp 

 and scouts discovered strange human tracks in the woods near the 

 little camp, relatives went to the little camp and begged them to join 

 them for mutual defense and offered them goods to show their respect, 

 treating them as mourners. 



From the foregoing accounts, we have seen that prior to 1837, 

 each village group had its own council and police force and operated 

 pretty much as an independent group with prescribed territory on 

 the Missouri for permanent summer villages and separate hunting 

 territory. The traditions indicate that the territory controlled was 

 sharply reduced during the latter part of the 18th century due to 

 epidemics and an intensification of warfare when neighboring groups 

 received firearms and moved westward into territory formerly con- 

 trolled by these and the Mandan village groups. With the reduction 

 of controlled territory, and the resettlement of the three village groups 

 near the mouth of Knife River, a tribal council was estabhshed for 

 effective cooperation between village groups, its membership con- 

 sisting of some 12 members of high status. This system was not 

 of long existence, beginning shortly after the 1782 smallpox epidemic 

 and ending with the union of the three village groups to build Fishhook 

 Village in 1845. 



Various writers have written of the first building of Fishhook 

 Village but the particular rites employed on this occasion have signifi- 



