76 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



clan would sing the victory songs and praise their "son" while his 

 own clansmen wept at the thought of losing one of their members. 

 In such circumstances the "blood father" occupied an intermediate 

 situation. He would weep with his son's clansmen, cut his hair, and 

 inflict physical pain on himself as did the females of the son's family 

 and clan. The degree of self-torture was usually in direct proportion 

 to the son's bravery and whether the father would be left sonless. 

 A man grieved loudest and longest for an only son. 



The final rites were held at the grave or scaftold where the body was 

 taken by persons of the father's clan and either placed on a scaffold 

 or interred, according to the wishes of the deceased or his nearest 

 clansmen. Those officiating, people of the father's clan, and visitors, 

 were given the goods collected by the clan for its deceased member. 

 According to tradition, the Hidatsa more frequently buried their 

 dead outside of the village than did the Awaxawi or Awatixa. In 

 this respect, the latter groups more closely followed the later Mandan 

 practice of placing the dead on scaffolds. The archeology of the three 

 Kjiife River villages supports this native belief; individual burial pits 

 and mounds are exceedingly numerous adjacent to Hidatsa village 

 although exceedingly rare at the other villages. 



The father's clan had other important duties in addition to officiating 

 during the death and funeral of a son. They generally named their 

 "sons" and "daughters" and frequently, in the case of children dying 

 young, the same person giving the name was selected to "bring the 

 robe" when the child died. Informal feasts were also given to the 

 people of the father's clan from time to time. Everyone was expected 

 to give feasts. Those who had a surplus of food and property were 

 expected to share it from time to time with the elderly, but more 

 particularly with the people of the father's clan. One looked to 

 the people of the father's clan for formal instruction in fasting and 

 rituals and paid for that service. With few exceptions, organized 

 ceremonies likewise passed from one man to another standing in the 

 relationship of "son." The father and the people of the father's clan 

 were respected relatives; they took little part in the routine training of 

 their "sons" and "daughters." In ritualistic training, however, 

 they assumed a dominant role, for, at birth, a "son" or "daughter" 

 received a name taken from these ritualistic possessions believed to 

 afford supernatural protection. All through life the people of the 

 father's clan offered prayers and sold sacred objects and rites to the 

 "sons" and "daughters"; and in death they disposed of the body with 

 appropriate rites to send the spirit away. On some occasions, special 

 rites were performed years after the death of a "son" or "daughter" 

 who had died away from the village, at the time when the skull was 

 brought back and placed at a skull shrine. 



