Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 127 



Heart were out on the warpath under the leadership of Cherries-in- 

 Mouth, Crows Heart wanted to go onto the Baby Hill near the Little 

 Missouri to look around, but the leader said, "We came out to look for 

 our enemies, not babies' tracks." Shortly afterward, however, the 

 entire party went to Buffalo Home Butte nearby to see if the buffaloes 

 had been coming out of the cave recently. They made offerings of 

 eagle feathers to the buffalo spirits residing in the hill and asked the 

 buffaloes to come out faster, for the number on the earth was not very- 

 great at that time. 



It was believed that the tracks of the little babies and buffaloes 

 could be seen under the rocks and in the caves of those hills where 

 they were believed to reside. Some people would claim that they 

 could remember things before they were born. Sitting Elk ^* of the 

 Hidatsa and Standing Bear of the Mandan would claim that they 

 could even remember each other when they lived in the Baby Hill. 

 Standing Bear was in the lead and they came to the washout with a 

 small pole as a bridge. Standing Bear crossed safely but Sitting Elk 

 fell from the pole after he had reached the opposite side, so he was 

 delayed. Standing Bear was born first. Although they were born of 

 different mothers. Standing Bear would call Sitting Elk his "younger 

 brother" for they had started out of the hill at approximately the same 

 time. Standing Bear said when they grew up, "I crossed the bridge 

 and went on but Sitting Elk nearly fell in. That is the sign that I am 

 going to live to an old age but Sitting Elk will not grow old." Stand- 

 ing Bear and Sitting Elk called each other brother even though the 

 former belonged to the Mandan Tamisik clan and the latter to the 

 Hidatsa Waterbuster clan. 



The concept of the origin of humans from spirit homes was extended 

 to other animal life as well. There were numerous Buffalo Spirit homes 

 where offerings were made for the propagation of the big mammals.^* 



From the ceremonial myths believed to be of Awatixa village origin, 

 it appears that they, unlike the Hidatsa and Awaxawi, thought that 

 they came from the sky in contrast to the other groups who tell of the 

 first settlement of the earth from people coming from underground. 

 Sometimes a person would say that he came from above when he was 

 born and that, when he died, he would return to the land above. 

 Then the people would say that he talked just like an Awatixa. 

 Frequent reference is made in the sacred myths to former existence in 

 the sky. A common theme of these myths is that one's former 

 existence will be revealed by visions. The Hidatsa also believed that 

 the spirit babies would play with sticks and were so rough that some 



H He had a NaxpikE bundle but was obliged to leave the village after he murdered Edge-of-Rock. a 

 clansman. 

 " See Earthnaming Rites, pp. 433-436, for these spirit homes. 



