Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 191 



were expected to do likewise. This was, however, a matter for the 

 intervillage council to handle and not the Black Mouths. 



The Black Mouths were also responsible for the safety of the people 

 and their good conduct whenever visiting tribes were in the village. 

 This was an important role prior to the middle of the 19th century 

 since many tribes came to the Hidatsa villages to trade for garden 

 products. As soon as word reached the village by advanced runners 

 that people were coming for the purpose of trade or to visit, the 

 council and police met to arrange the reception. Very often those 

 families who had recently lost members of their related households 

 in warfare with the visiting band announced that they would not be 

 received. This was their socially recognized right even though in the 

 long run they could lose prestige with those families anticipating a 

 profitable trade with the enemy. The culture, however, provided 

 numerous methods of satisfying those who recently had lost relatives. 

 In some instances the grievance was not actually toward the enemy 

 but with the Hidatsa war leader who had not inflicted sufficient self- 

 torture or had not fasted long enough after the loss of young men of 

 his party; the relatives had thought that he had failed to show proper 

 respect for their relatives and had treated their young men's lives 

 lightly. Whatever the circumstances, it was the right of families in 

 mourning to refuse to admit the enemy band even for trading purposes. 

 This left the council one of two alternatives: buy ofl' the mourners with 

 horses and other valuable things, or refuse to admit the enemy band. 

 The moiimers were generally paid off unless they had very strong 

 feehngs in the matter. It was the duty of the Black Mouths to put 

 up the goods and horses and carry the society pipe to them. 



The Black Mouths met continuously when an enemy band was in 

 the village to forestall trouble. In historic times, each visiting group 

 had an organized police to work with the Black Mouths. Should a 

 fight break out between two individuals of opposite groups, each 

 policeman would seize his own tribesman but refuse to touch one of 

 the other group. In general, unless there was a great disparity in 

 numbers, and one group could be taken by surprise, conflicts rarely 

 got out of hand. It was an established rule that once an outside 

 group or an individual had been taken in and fed, peace should pre- 

 vail. According to a long-standing custom, a visiting group assisted 

 its hosts in repelling any attack from outside. Thus we find refer- 

 ences to one Sioux band, enjoying Mandan-Hidatsa hospitality, being 

 obliged to assist in repelling another Sioux band, their own tribesmen. 

 We also find references in their traditions to admitting to Fishhook 

 Village war parties of Assiniboin bent on attacking the Mandan at the 

 Kjiife River. Those Mandan with lodges in the Village assumed the 

 position of "guests" and were refused permission to make an attack 



