Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 99 



one of these clans. This was an important relationship for the 

 Hidatsa because of the numerous situations when one was expected 

 to offer presents to males and females of the father's clan. 



This "father's sister"-"sister's son" relationship would, unless 

 broken by closer ties established by marriage, extend to all of the 

 father's sister's female descendants as well as to the female members 

 of the father's clan. Chart 12 illustrates this point. Old-Woman- 

 Crawling could call Bear Woman and Hunts Turnips "daughters- 

 in-law," since they were his wife's mother's brother's wife and sister-in- 

 law. The Hidatsa, however, preferred not to employ classifications 

 based on affinal relationships when other relationships were applicable, 

 due, I believe, to the instability of marriages. In this instance 

 Old- Woman-Crawling never classified the two women as "daughters- 

 in-law" but rather as "sisters" because they were of the same clan. 

 Bears Arm caUed them "father's sisters" since they were of Old- 

 Woman-Crawling's clan but they were Bears Arm's mother's mother's 

 brother's wife and wife's sister. He called Bears Nose an "older 

 brother" but called the women "father's sisters" instead of "sisters- 

 in-law." Bears Arm, on the other hand, called Bear Woman and 

 Hunts Turnips "father's sisters" even though Bear Woman was 

 married to his mother's mother's brother. In his own age group 

 was Medicine Woman, daughter of Bear Woman, who also might 

 have been classified as a "father's sister." However, she was a 

 "closer" relative to Bears Arm than her mother, Bear Woman, being 

 the daughter of Bears Nose (Knife clan of Bears Arm) whereas 

 Bear Woman was only his wife. From Bears Arm's point of view 

 Medicine Woman was a blood relative while Bear Woman was not. 



Lying Chicken stood in several relationships to Bears Arm. In 

 the first place he was the husband of Hunts Turnips, whom Bears 

 Arm called a "father's sister," and was therefore a "grandfather." 

 Likewise he was a "brother," since Bears Nose was a "brother" 

 to both: to Bears Arm by being his mother's mother's brother and 

 to Lying Chicken since they had married sisters. Old-Woman- 

 Crawling called Lying Chicken "brother" because they were of the 

 Four-clan moiety. When Lying Chicken — who, by all standards 

 of kinship extensions would have been classified as a very distant 

 relative indeed — married, Old-Woman-Crawling adopted him as a 

 "son" since Lying Chicken gave promise of becoming a distinguished 

 warrior, and thus new and permanent relationships were established 

 between two sets of relatives. Bears Arm continued to treat Medicine 

 Woman as a "daughter"; Lying Chicken became Bears Arm's 

 "brother," a relation that could not be broken during their entire 

 lifetime except in the event of cowardly acts; Hunts Turnips and 

 Bear Woman became Bears Arm's "sister-in-law." 



