Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 147 



During the night Bell came in and, seeing that we were together, he went out 

 again. In the morning I took Looks-for-Sweetgrass back to my mother's camp. 

 She brought her share of the dried meat with her. Some families were bringing 

 down their meat with horses but ours was using buUboats. My new wife and I 

 painted up and dressed in our best clothes so everyone could see how happy we 

 were. Others were floating along, too, but we kept a httle to the side of the others. 

 I was singing the Fox Society songs as we floated along but at the same time I 

 had my eyes on some other girls. This way I got separated from my family. 

 Hearing a noise, I saw that my new wife and Bird Woman were fighting with bull- 

 boat paddles so we paddled off where Bird Woman could not hit her. 



When we got back to the village, Looks-for-Sweetgrass gave all of her meat 

 to her mothers, sisters, and brothers. Then she came to me at my mother's 

 lodge. I liked her for she did such fine quill and bead work so I kept her for 

 a year. During that time I again had the 4-day walking ceremony for the 

 buffaloes. We went through it together and while she was taking the kettles 

 back after the ceremony was completed, I stopped to smoke with some of my 

 friends. I caught her standing with White Belly, one of my friends, holding 

 hands. I said to them, "You two people stand there very pretty," but my 

 feelings were badly hurt for he was a clansman. I went back home and closed 

 up the door so there was no chance for her to get in. I knew he would take her out. 



Now that I had gone through the ceremony with Looks-for-Sweetgrass, I was 

 sure that I could get a good wife who had not been married. I found a girl 

 named Otter who was the daughter of Red-Buffalo-Cow, the head chief of the 

 Nuptadi Mandan. I tried hard to get her, for none of the young men could 

 boast that they had possessed her. We could see that she warranted that good 

 reputation; she worked hard and never seemed to want to get away from her 

 mothers to talk to the men. It took me a long time to marry her for she wanted 

 three horses while I tried to marry her without putting up horses. I tried to 

 get her to love me; I tried to get her to go out with me alone on the prairies. 

 She refused each time I asked her. I could see that her people were not wor- 

 ried for they had confidence that she was not going to elope. At last I had to 

 give in and put up the horses. My brothers and sisters helped me and we had 

 the feast at my mother's lodge. Immediately, her family paid me a horse to 

 come to my wife's lodge to live. 



Red-Buffalo-Cow was good to me. We were of the same clan and he treated 

 me like a brother. He would say to me, "Sometime you must invite the old 

 people to eat with you here and then you may become a chief, too." This was 

 much different than in the Hidatsa lodges where the fathers-in-law were not as 

 friendly. At that time I was strong enough to stand many hard hunting trips 

 without eating during the day. I would go out hunting often and we surely 

 had a good home. I had two mothers-in-law there. The Government issued 

 out two guns to each tribe and my father-in-law got one with many shells. He said, 

 "My son-in-law, here is a gun for you; now you can kill all the game you want." 



He had other daughters; All-Comes-Out was about 2 years younger than 

 Otter, and Antelope Woman was much younger. One day when Otter was sev- 

 eral months pregnant, my father-in-law said to me "I am well satisfied with the 

 way you treat us, bringing in meat from the hunt and bringing me the candy 

 and goods from the trader. We do not think we can find a better husband 

 for our daughters so you can have All-Comes-Out but not Antelope Woman, 

 for it is up to her whom she marries since she has been married before." I 

 took All-Comes-Out without putting up any horses and was with her all the 

 time while Otter was pregnant. The baby was a boy; my father-in-law named 



