70 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



to Awaxawi village after the first smallpox epidemic. According to 

 traditions, the equivalence of the Mandan Prairie Chicken clan was 

 originally with the Prairie Chickens of Awatixa village, who owned a 

 Sacred Robe bundle in common. It was customary for these people 

 to meet whenever the ceremony was being performed. Inclusion of 

 the Prairie Chicken members of Hidatsa and Awaxawi villages in 

 these rites did not occur until after the three Hidatsa villages united 

 for mutual defense after 1837, at which time all Prairie Chicken mem- 

 bers, irrespective of village origin, met when the rites were being per- 

 formed and were entitled to receive goods and honors. Marriage 

 within the clan was then no longer considered proper. The equating 

 of the other clans occurred within the memory of the older people 

 living in 1932 when this study was made. When they were young, 

 opinion was divided; some thought that it was proper for persons of 

 the Knife clan to marry Mandans of the Tamisik, since the couple 

 was of different tribes, but others disapproved. The same views 

 prevailed for the WaxikEna and Maxoxati clans. By 1880, when 

 such marriages occurred, disapproval was general. 



Equating of clans was extended to include the moieties as well. 

 Except for the Awatixa, who claim to have once had a 13-clan system 

 which at this time seems forgotten, there was a marked difference in 

 the number of Mandan and Hidatsa clans. The Hidatsa Three-clan 

 moiety was equated with the Mandan WaxikEua-Tamisik moiety 

 founded by Lone Man and comprised the survivors of the Six-clan 

 moiety; the Hidatsa Four-clan moiety became equated with the 

 Mandan Seven-clan moiety founded by Clay-on-Face of which only 

 two clans, the Prairie Chicken and Speclded Eagle, survive. 



The Hidatsa clan names have remained unchanged during the entire 

 period of recorded history. This is in sharp contrast with the Crow 

 among whom names were changing during the memory of old in- 

 formants. With the exception of the Prairie Chicken and Xura 

 clans, Hidatsa names were nontotemic and more closely resemble the 

 Crow than the Mandan who had, in one moiety, Prairie Chicken, 

 Speckled Eagle, Bear, Badger, Red-Hill-People (snake), Crow, and 

 Bunch-of-Wood People. In spite of their traditional late separation 

 from the Crow, none of the names of Crow clans show similarity to 

 those of the Hidatsa nor do the Hidatsa have traditions of clan re- 

 lationships to specific Crow clans. Those Hidatsa who have had 

 intimate contacts with the Crow during the period of readjustment 

 subsequent to the smallpox epidemic of 1837, when many Hidatsa 

 lived temporarily with the Crow, are aware of the presence of clans 

 among the Crow but in no instance do they equate the clans of the 

 two tribes. Those Crow who settled with the Hidatsa soon affiliated 



