Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 113 



and respect to the same older people, fast together, dance together, 

 and even hunt together alone when there were no reports of enemy 

 activities about. 



Unless there was a great difference in age, they would go on raiding 

 parties together under the leadership of a war chief and assist each 

 other in capturing horses. In situations of extreme danger, a brother's 

 first duty was to protect the other one even when the odds were 

 against him. Should one be killed by the enemy, his brothers were 

 expected to avenge his death. One who succeeded in killing the 

 particular enemy responsible for the death of a brother was highly 

 respected and Hidatsa traditions are rich in accounts of brothers 

 going out alone to waylay and kill the person responsible for a brother's 

 death. Like the Mandan, there was a special design to be worn 

 indicating that the wearer had gone out alone far from the village 

 to kill and scalp one enemy. 



It was a man's duty to see that his deceased brother's widow and 

 children were cared for. He held first right to marry the widow 

 and she ought not remarry with another until her husband's brothers 

 had made their views known. A man felt strongly obliged to marry 

 a widow who had mom-ned long for her dead husband. A single 

 man would ask a brother for his wife to assist in certain ceremonies 

 and one should not refuse his request. If one or more of a man's 

 wives wished to go out with her male relatives and their wives to get 

 meat, and the husband found it inconvenient to go along, he would 

 frequently send a younger unmarried brother m his place to hunt for 

 the women and even to assume his own rights and duties. Older 

 men and women involved in this temporary husband-wife status 

 explained that this was done to keep other men from running off 

 with these unattended women. Under no circumstances was a 

 brother permitted intimacy with a brother's wife without the other's 

 permission. A man would tease his sister-in-law and teU her that 

 she should go out with him on the prairie or go visiting the Crows, 

 but she was expected to accept these overtures as a form of teasing 

 and never take them seriously. If a woman made overtures to her 

 husband's brother and he was "unable to resist," the woman and not 

 the man was punished, for it was said that women should have 

 greater controls of their sexual impulses than men. A brother was 

 not expected to hold a grievance against another brother; in fact, 

 when conflict situations arose, brothers invariably banded together. 

 There are numerous references in the mythology to widespread chaos 

 in the village stemming from quarrels between brothers.^^ 



u See "The Legendary Period," pp. 297-308. 



