Bowers] HID ATS A SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 195 



rites but is rarely found in Hidatsa mythology. Nor does one find 

 frequent reference in other Hidatsa myths to the Dog Den Buttes, 

 an important region in Mandan mythology. 



In the Hidatsa myth, a beautiful young woman refused to marry 

 or to have sexual intercourse with any man, and her people said 

 that it was her prerogative. One hot night she could not sleep until 

 early morning, after the lodge had cooJed off. When she awoke, 

 she saw a man put his white robe around him and leave her bed. 

 This happened 3 nights in a row. On the fourth visit she threw red 

 paint which hit him between the shoulders. When she looked for 

 the paint mark among her tribesmen she found instead a white dog 

 sleeping in her own lodge with the red paint on his shoulders. He 

 ran out of the lodge and 2 months later she discovered that she was 

 pregnant. 



When the time came to deliver the child, she went to a washout 

 beyond the village limits and there gave birth to nine pups. The 

 first eight were males and the youngest was a female. The oldest 

 was named Black Wolf or Cedar-Between-the-Eyes; the next oldest 

 was Blows-Through-a-Hole. The youngest male was named Brisket 

 or Last Male; the others were Little-Dogs- Whose-Names-Were-Not- 

 KJiown. She left the pups in the dry washout and would return now 

 and then to nurse them. One night there was thunder and lightning 

 with rain. When she returned, her babies were gone. She followed 

 them to a tipi and there found the pups with their father and was 

 invited in by Brisket. In the morning she was alone. She followed 

 their trail. This happened three times and on the fourth day they 

 reached Dog Dens. Again Brisket invited her in and she went into 

 Dog Dens which she discovered to be a large earth lodge. Last 

 Male or Brisket warned his mother to tell her people that they should 

 not come to Dog Dens for his brothers would cause all except dogs 

 to freeze their feet if they came there. (From this warning those 

 of the Dog society would afterward go around in the village without 

 moccasins to show that they were the Real Dogs.) Brisket's brothers 

 would also cause people to go insane; hence the name of Crazy Dogs 

 for some people. Brisket agreed to return home with his mother, 

 transformed into the small wood owl named Little Owl. Today 

 the Hidatsa say the seven stars of the dipper are Little Owl's seven 

 brothers. 



At this point the Dog myth takes up the theme of the Mandan 

 Snow Owl sacred myth. An eagle trapper imprisoned in his trapping 

 pit, dug out and found himself at the lodge of Big Owl and his servant, 

 Little Owl. He was sent out to capture an elk that had many 

 guardians. He succeeded in killing the elk. Then Big Owl sent 

 him out to get Striped Scalp and he secured the help of Old-Woman- 



