Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 97 



sibling relationship between Many Growth and Medicine Robe. He 

 always addressed Woman-in- Water as "father" and Medicine Robe as 

 "mother." Although by this reasoning, Walks should have been a 

 "son," this would have been inconsistent with clan exogamy. He 

 always called him "brother," claiming that common sex was again the 

 important factor. 



In the case of YeUow Coat (Chicken-Can't-Swim) of the Itisuku 

 clan (see chart 11), Bears Arm called him "grandfather" by this 

 reasoning: he first showed that nowhere in his known matrilineal or 

 patrilineal lineages were there any lineal or collateral relatives married 

 to persons of the Itisuku clan. Yellow Coat's wives, however, were of 

 the Prairie Chicken clan as was also Bears Arm's maternal grand- 

 father, so Bears Arm called each wife "grandmother" and YeUow Coat 

 "grandfather." He could have addressed Yellow Coat as "father" 

 since the Itisuku clan was of the Four-clan moiety to which Bears 

 Arm's father belonged, but he considered the other relationship a 

 closer one. He could also have called Yellow Coat "grandfather" 

 through Breathing, Bears Arm's paternal grandfather who was also of 

 the Prairie Chicken clan, but he considered Bear-Lying-Against-Tree, 

 the maternal grandfather, a closer relative than Breathing. Bears 

 Arm called Two Bulls a "grandfather" who, although a son to Good 

 Squash, was also of the same clan as Bear-Lying-Against-Tree. He 

 could also have called Two Bulls a "brother-in-law" since Bears Arm 

 and Chippewa Woman were of equated Mandan and Hidatsa clans 

 and would have so classified Two BuUs had there been no other rela- 

 tionship. He considered relationships with Mandan individuals on 

 the basis of equated clans closer than moiety relationships within his 

 own village and tribe. 



Bears Arm (Knife clan) called Cherry Necklace (Maxoxati clan) a 

 "brother" because both were of the Three-clan moiety, and the wives 

 "sisters-in-law" because there were no persons of the Maxoxati clan 

 in Bears Arm's lineages; neither were there persons of the wives' clan 

 in his lineages. None of Bears Arm's relatives had ever adopted a 

 "son" or "brother" in Cherry Necklace's lineages. The moiety was, 

 in this instance, the last resort in establishing relationships. 



The evidence indicates that the moiety or the "linked" clan served 

 as the basis of extending Idn only when lineages did not apply. The 

 Three-clan moiety, consisting of the Maxoxati, Knife, and Low Hat 

 clans, comprised one group of linked clans. The Four-clan moiety 

 had two groupings or phratries: Phratry I comprised the Prairie 

 Chicken, Speckled Eagle, and Awaxenawita clans; Phratry II com- 

 prised the Waterbuster, Xura, and Itisuku clans. Thus, a person 

 would call females of the Prairie Chicken, Speckled Eagle, or 

 Awaxenawita clans "father's sister" when the father belonged to 



