170 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 104 



There were some who believed that Hidatsa earth burials were 

 adopted from the Arikara. However, this position cannot be held 

 in light of other evidence. In the first place, it is inconsistent with 

 the evidence to maintain Arikara origin of earth burials since both the 

 Hidatsa and Awatixa villages were contemporaneous and situated 

 less than a mile apart. Further evidence is the fact that in 1837 when 

 smallpox broke out in the Hidatsa and Mandan villages, the people 

 of Hidatsa village moved upstream a few miles below Lucky Mound 

 Creek and lived in the woods apart from the other people. Neverthe- 

 less the smallpox did reach them at this village known today as "Where 

 People Died of Smallpox." Several informants mentioned this village 

 also and the many burial pits of that date were still to be seen in 1932. 

 Old Hidatsa informants who had been to the shoreline areas of Devils 

 Lake to the east where they formerly lived, claimed that they had 

 seen the burial mounds of their old people who formerly lived there. 



The other method of disposal was above ground in trees, on scaffolds, 

 or under overhanging rocks. When living in winter camps, it was 

 common to place the dead in trees. During the summer months, 

 while occupying the permanent villages, scaffolds were erected on a 

 four-post frame at the edge of the village. The area might contain 

 both burials and scaffolds. In some instances all the members of 

 some households would be placed on scaffolds, while all the members 

 of other households would be buried in the ground. In other instances 

 a household might practice both scaffold disposal and interment. 

 When a person died away from the village, it was usually impossible 

 to bring him back. If his brothers and sisters wanted his bones 

 brought back to the village, it was then the duty of some female 

 standing in the relationship of father's sister to the deceased to make 

 the arrangements for the return of the skuU a year later. She would 

 then communicate with various people going out in that direction and 

 provide them with a bag in which to place the man's skull. When it 

 was returned to the village, it was customary to rewrap it and place 

 it on one of the existing scaffolds with his relatives or, in the event of 

 interment, to bury it just below the surface, over the body of one of 

 his close relatives. 



Another closely related practice was to paint the skuU and set it 

 on a nest of soft sage in one of the skull circles near the village. 

 These skull circles were customary fasting places for those seeking 

 dreams. When Fishhook Village was abandoned and the Hidatsa 

 moved out on the reservation, one such skull circle was maintained 

 on the hOls northeast of Elbowoods. People coming primarily from 

 Awatixa and Awaxawi villages on the Knife Kiver were wrapped and 

 set on the ground at this place. When the wrapping had deteriorated 

 ^nd the flesh had decayed, close relatives would remove the skulls 



