Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 199 



these were not important. This society differed somewhat from the 

 others of the age-grade series in the acceptance of junior members to 

 represent mythological characters associated with the buffaloes. In 

 this respect, the society is patterned closely after the White Buffalo 

 society owned by the women. In both instances they dramatized 

 the return of the buffaloes to the village to dance and visit their junior 

 members. The Bull society also included in its membership a number 

 of young girls whose duty it was to "bring water for the buffaloes" 

 when the society met. Whenever the BuU society was painting 

 its members preparatory to making a public appearance, their 

 announcer would go through the village and caU "The buffalo herds 

 are coming to the Missouri. Everyone come out and see them drink." 

 The similarity of masks and the popularity of the buffalo dance in 

 the Mandan Okipa suggest, in light of the numerous references in 

 the Okipa rites to the buffalo dances, a greater antiquity of the Bull 

 society for the Mandan. However, the BuU dance was of wide dis- 

 tribution in the Plains and may well be a cultural feature that sub- 

 sequently affected the Okipa. The Bull society seems to have lost 

 its popularity after 1837 due to a change in the Hidatsa and the 

 Mandan system of grouping sacred bundle owners. Formerly, owing 

 to the greater village and tribal size, it was customary to subdivide 

 the major bundle owners possessing sacred buffalo skulls according to 

 related ceremonies. Thus, when a rain, wolf, or other ceremony was 

 given, only those who owned rights in the particular ceremony met 

 to receive goods and honors. The population was so small after 1837 

 that, generally, aU those who possessed sacred buffalo skulls came 

 irrespective of the bundles of which the sacred skulls were a part. 

 In this internal tribal adjustment, an organization of sacred buffalo 

 skull owners replaced the Bull society. 



WOMEN'S SOCIETIES 



If one excluded those women's societies recently adopted from the 

 Mandan, little would remain to indicate an age-grade series for 

 females. Both the White Buffalo and Goose societies were reportedly 

 bought from the Mandan during the early 19th century. Both groups 

 equate the Hidatsa Enemy society with the Mandan Eiver society, 

 although there are features not common to both tribes. The Mandan 

 explain the differences as due to imitation of the River society rather 

 than actual purchase. The Hidatsa, on the other hand, consider the 

 Enemy society one of their age-grade series. After the building of 

 Fishhook Village there was considerable crossing of tribal lines into 

 the lower societies of the series, but each tribe maintained separate 

 Goose and White Buffalo societies for several years after moving out 

 onto the reservation. 



