Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 185 



group, assistance was denied them. Occasionally, however, young 

 men would speak of their accomplishments as collectively exceeding 

 those of the existing Black Mouths and persist in their ambitions to 

 complete the piu-chase. In such instances, exorbitant demands or 

 downright refusal halted the negotiations. About 1872 the Crow- 

 Flies-High band separated because sale by the Black Mouths was 

 refused. There are numerous references to the bypassing of younger 

 men's societies. This was impossible in the higher societies because 

 the Dog, Old Dog, and Bull societies were reserved for older men who 

 had had wide experiences in warfare, ceremonies, and group leader- 

 ship of one form or another. The Hidatsa think of these older 

 societies as the policy makers for the village. The Black Mouths 

 served as executors to enforce the policies of the older men and the 

 customs of the village. 



Prior to the union of the three Hidatsa village groups when Fish- 

 hook Village was built in 1845, each village had an independent 

 police or Black Mouth society. Each society was organized in the 

 same manner as the others with the same number of officers, the 

 same symbols of authority, and the same relative position in the 

 age-grade structure. Collectively, each society addressed the same 

 society of the other Hidatsa or the Mandan villages as irakuu in 

 Hidatsa or kotomanaku in Mandan, the kinship term for "pal." 

 A society had no authority except with its own village group until 

 after 1845 when the union of three village groups brought together 

 three independent Black Mouth societies. The three societies 

 functioned as one during the summer months, but during those winters 

 when the population broke up into separate camps based on the 

 original village lines, the police societies likewise dispersed according 

 to former village affiliations. This was a common practice until well 

 into the 1850's when, as a result of intermarriage, the original village 

 lines were blurred. 



The Black Mouths' duties fell into a number of categories. In- 

 variably the group met whenever a major ceremony was performed. 

 The Black Mouths were concerned only with those public matters 

 which involved the entire village population and they had no authority 

 to interfere in factional or personal matters unlikely to involve the 

 entire population. Thus stealing, whether of meat and corn from a 

 household or of another man's wife, were matters for the clans and 

 households to handle. In fact, a Black Mouth might often be in- 

 volved in such matters himself without materially affecting the status 

 of his own society. 



Probably the most important duty of the Black Mouths was to 

 enforce the orders of the council of older men. Whenever any im- 

 portant decisions were under discussion, the Black Mouths would 



