178 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



village. On the whole, the Awaxawi show many similarities to the 

 Mandan system. 



The close similarity of the Hidatsa-proper to the Awatixa is signifi- 

 cant in view of their traditional short residence in adjacent villages. 

 If traditions of the long residence of the Awatixa group on the Missouri 

 at Painted Woods and even as far south as the Heart River as an 

 agricultural group, with their earliest contacts with the Mandan after 

 their separation from the Mountain Crow and prior to the appearance 

 of the Awaxawi and Hidatsa-River Crow are correct, one would 

 expect greater similarities to the Mandan than to the Hidatsa-proper. 



The order of buying and selling is nearly identical for all Mandan 

 and Hidatsa after reaching the Half-Shaved Head and Black Mouth 

 societies. The exceptions for the Mandan were the Black-Tail Deer 

 society, which was represented in only the westside village groups at 

 the Heart River prior to 1785, and the Raven society (?) for one of 

 the Hidatsa villages. Both societies were of limited distribution 

 even in their own tribes and died out about 1837. The order of pur- 

 chase from Black Mouth to Dog to Old Dog to Bulls was characteris- 

 tic of all Hidatsa and Mandan village groups and seems to have been 

 fixed for a considerable time. Instability of purchase order was at the 

 lower haK of the series. It was also at this point that innovations 

 crept in with supplementary purchases of new societies. Older 

 people were probably more conservative than the younger men. 



Prior to the union of the three Hidatsa groups into one village in 

 1845, each village endeavored to maintain an independent age-grade 

 series and membership was regulated largely by residence. Even 

 for those societies common to all villages, one bought and sold with 

 his own group and membership rarely extended beyond village limits. 

 When a society was not represented in a village, as in the case of the 

 Stone Hammer found only at Hidatsa and Awatixa or the Notched 

 Stick and Kit-Fox societies of Awaxawi, there was an occasional 

 participation in society purchase with one's age group of another 

 village. According to native informants, this was more common after 

 the epidemic of the 1780's when the Hidatsa vdlage groups moved 

 into the three villages near the mouth of the Knife River. Since 

 there was a great deal of rivalry among villages, informants did not 

 think joining a society from a different village was a common oc- 

 currence until after the epidemic of 1837, when conditions fostered 

 further union of village groups for mutual defense. 



In the light of village traditions that the Awatixa represent the 

 oldest Hidatsa village group on the Missouri with long residence at 

 the mouth of the Knife River, whereas the Hidatsa-proper and 

 River Crow were late arrivals on the Missouri, living largely upstream 

 from the Knife River, the greater similarity of the Hidatsa-Awatixa 



