Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 77 



The clan, particularly a large one, played an important role in 

 uniting households and integrating the village population, and it 

 brought together many households for common efforts. Thus we find 

 that the amount of goods required for the purchase or performance of 

 a ceremony was far in excess of one person's ability to acquire. Cere- 

 monial demands, in general, were not difficult burdens for one belong- 

 ing to a large clan since all people of the clan were obliged to assist to 

 avoid censure from the other clans and to save face. Only in the case 

 of small clans v/as the burden heavy; this may explain the tendency of 

 the small clans, such as the Xura and Itisuku, to affiliate with larger 

 ones. The obligations of the clan in elevating a person to chieftain- 

 ship were so numerous that a small clan was at a distinct disadvantage . 



Not only did the clan play an important role in the integration of 

 household groups comprising the villages but it united households with 

 those of other villages. The degree of cooperation between persons 

 of the same clan but of different villages was largely a matter of dis- 

 tance. According to the opinion of informants, well supported by 

 archeological evidence, the villages were quite widely separated when 

 the population was large and their enemies were not so numerous. 

 The villages were largely endogamous due to matrilocal residence 

 which kept the women tied to the households of their mothers. 

 Males were reluctant to move from their mothers' villages where they 

 had all of their closest social and ceremonial ties. We can assume 

 that, because of the similarity of clan names and groupings, the clan 

 system as we know it today was established long before 1796 when the 

 three village groups occupying sites within 3 or 4 miles of each other 

 at the mouth of Knife River were visited by early travelers. In rela- 

 tions between villages, the clan was the principal integrating force. 

 Visitors from adjacent villages were housed with clansmen and fre- 

 quently assisted and participated in the ceremonial activities of fellow 

 clansmen. Although there were minor dialectic and other cultural 

 differences which distinguished villages, a common clan system played 

 an important role in holding the tribal population together and avoid- 

 ing intervillage warfare. 



By 1825, and after a quarter of a century of intimate contacts with 

 the Mandan, refuge there was no longer offered to those who had 

 murdered a tribesman. This is undoubtedly due to the equating of 

 Mandan and Hidatsa clans prior to that period. At this point it is 

 interesting to note that even though the Crow-Flies-High band of 

 Hidatsa separated from the Fishhook Village about 1872 under condi- 

 tions approaching civil war and established a separate village of their 

 own, those who got into trouble at either village were not accepted by 

 the other because of the strength of the clan ties. Neither Big Wind, 

 who committed manslaughter at Fort Buford, nor Sitting Elk, who 



