186 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



meet with the council. As soon as a matter had been settled, the 

 announcer for the Black Mouths went through the village informing 

 the people of the decision. News of important village matters 

 quickly spread, for those of the council were widely scattered through 

 the village and invariably discussed the matters with their own 

 households. When people heard the announcer call through the 

 village, they would listen. The council's duties were broad and 

 involved matters concerning the people at large: moving the village; 

 the time of leaving for the summer buffalo hunt and the various 

 camping places along the way; the prohibition on leaving the village 

 for warfare; peace treaties with neighboring tribes; and, more re- 

 cently, policies with respect to the White traders and Government 

 ojfficials. 



On other occasions, the Black Mouths enforced the regulations of 

 other leaders such as the Winter Camp leader or the Summer Hunt 

 leader. The Hidatsa elected each fall a Winter Chief who was 

 responsible for the welfare of the group during the time they were 

 organized under his leadership. It was customary for the winter 

 leader to make frequent offerings to his sacred bundles and to seek 

 the assistance of other distinguished sacred bundle owners for success. 

 Should the enemy attack the camp and kill some of the people or 

 steal horses, hunters be injured when running buffaloes, or other 

 misfortune strike, the leader was held responsible and blamed for 

 these misfortunes. If there were many deaths or accidents, the 

 people would say that they made a poor selection. The Winter 

 Camp leader selected someone as his personal announcer to keep the 

 camp informed of his plans and to integrate the activities of the group. 

 The Black Mouths were in continuous session during most of the 

 winter and frequently behaved in what sometunes seemed to be a 

 very arbitrary manner. These camps being undefended, it was 

 necessary to send scouts out continuously to note the movements of 

 enemy groups and to see that the horses were brought in quickly in 

 case of an impending attack. Since the purpose of these winter 

 camps was to move some distance from the summer village in order 

 to conserve wood and to spare the game ranging near the summer 

 villages, great reliance was placed on the game killed during the 

 winter both for food at the time and for a surplus supply to be taken 

 back to the villages in the spring when normally the herds were away 

 from the river on the summer range. The importance of these winter 

 herds in Hidatsa economy is indicated by the number of formal group 

 rituals for the winter buffalo and native statements of intensive 

 individual fasting for the return of the herds to the river bottoms 

 during the shortest and coldest days. Boiler (1868) has given us an 

 excellent account of the role of the Black Mouths in organizing the 



