190 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



with what the offender considered bad judgment, there were numerous 

 recourses that could be used later against him. He could be denied 

 property for use in a ceremony or be blocked in his ambitions by the 

 aggrieved person's relatives who had social and ceremonial rights 

 for sale. Gossip and ridicule could be employed. Women who had 

 a grievance might withhold aid to the individual of the Black Mouths 

 who had acted unfairly. As a joking relative, if such relationship 

 existed between them, she might even go to considerable trouble to 

 embarrass him publicly or dig up things in his past that he would 

 prefer to forget. A common practice was to make him a decorated 

 shirt for which he would be obliged to give her his favorite buffalo- 

 hunting horse. This could be an extreme sacrifice. Although the 

 Black Mouths collectively had such authority as the clans and 

 households allowed them, at all times they were individuals in daily 

 contacts with the group, and the culture provided nmnerous checks 

 to their authority. 



The Black Mouths of the various villages performed important roles 

 in preserving peace and reconciling conflict situations between differ- 

 ent Hidatsa and Mandan groups. This was an important function 

 of the Black Mouths, for it was imperative that the various village 

 groups live together peacefully during the past two centuries when 

 pressure of enemy groups was great and continuous. In these early 

 times, if native traditions are correct, the clans of different villages 

 had not been completely equated nor had they assumed the important 

 roles manifested in the 19th century. Each village, however, had an 

 identical police organization believed to have been derived from a 

 common founder, the Mandan culture hero Good-Furred-Robe. 

 Thus, when a theft in one village was committed by a member of a 

 different village, the Black Mouths of the former reported the matter 

 to the Black Mouths of the latter. The suspect's lodge or person 

 was then searched and the property, if found, was returned to the 

 Black Mouths of the village where the theft occurred. Although 

 thefts of smaU items might be easily overlooked, taking horses belong- 

 ing to another person, even though they had strayed away from the 

 rightful owner, could have had serious consequences if left to the 

 rightful owner and his village relatives to come into another village 

 to lay claim to his property. Village loyalty obviously was very 

 strong at that time. 



The Black Mouths had no authority over the movements and 

 actions of neighboring village groups of their own tribe as long as 

 their common interests did not clash. If, however, one village group 

 had imposed restrictions on its people because of the impending 

 approach of the winter buffalo herds, the other groups living nearby 



