Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION" 43 



had an Earthnaming bundle although from two different villages on 

 the Knife River. This was a new situation, for in the old villages 

 there was only one bundle to a village and it could not be subdivided. 



Opposition to Poor Wolf and Crows Paunch came largely from the 

 former Hidatsa village group with short traditional permanent 

 villages, for this group was traditionally more hke the Crow with 

 fewer formal ceremonies. The Awatixa and Awaxawi had placed 

 great emphasis on the formal ceremonies of long traditional existence 

 as the basis for societal welfare and indicated that, with the exception 

 of Bobtail Bull, the others had not made outstanding contributions 

 to the ceremonial life of the village. The younger men replied that 

 this was true but that they had done individual fasting and had more 

 scalps, war honors, and stolen horses than those who were always 

 hanging around the village begging goods of their relatives to pay for 

 the ceremonies. It was in this atmosphere that the people lived 

 during the latter part of the 1860's. Under other circumstances, 

 one group would have broken away until the differences had been 

 reconciled but this was impossible at the time because of the pressure 

 from the Sioux. 



During this time the conservative element centered its attack on 

 Crow-Flies-High whose relations with Bobtail Bull were essentially 

 that of a war chief to the village chief except that this relationship 

 did not have universal approval. Crow-Flies-High's parents had died 

 during the smallpox epidemic of 1837 and he was reared by women 

 of his clan. His father was the owner of an Old-Woman-Who-Never- 

 Dies bundle which was "put away" when he died. While fasting as a 

 young man, Crow-Flies-High dreamed of the bundle which was 

 interpreted as a supernatural instruction to perform the rites and 

 take up his father's ceremonial rights with the tribe. Instead, he 

 made up a personal bundle of those articles seen in his dream and 

 otherwise disregarded tribal practices of "taking up the father's 

 gods." Thus, the old "holy" men got neither a big feast nor fine goods 

 and Crow-Fhes-High received neither promises of success in warfare 

 and everything that he undertook nor the promise that he would 

 some day become a chief. Still, he was very successful whenever he 

 went out to war whether under someone else or as his own leader. 

 The older men said that his luck would surely give out, but it never 

 did. Fearing that he would lead the young men to their deaths, the 

 old men would advise the young warriors not to go out with Crow- 

 Flies-High; but they would sneak out and return with war honors. 

 All this was very disturbing, for Crow-Flies-High and his friend 

 Bobtail Bull were both members and leaders of the Black Mouth society 

 as well. 



