Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 201 



their society system. In the Mandan villages, the male singers were 

 bundle owners who managed the garden and fertility rites. These 

 sacred bundles were of two categories: those originating with the 

 culture hero, Good-Furred-Robe, and those originating with Old- 

 Woman-Who-Never-Dies. There were two bundles relating to the 

 Good-Furred-Robe: the Medicine Robe and the Skull bundles. In 

 early historic times, at least, these bundles were kept in different 

 vUlages. Villages not represented by these two bundles had Goose 

 societies whose singers were holders of Old-Woman- Who-Never-Dies 

 bundles. It is with the latter pattern that the Hidatsa Goose societies 

 were associated until 1837 at which time Bear-Looks-Out, an Awaxawi 

 and owner of an Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies bundle, received the 

 Skull bundle through his wife, a Mandan. Her father contemplated 

 putting it away since his family had experienced bad luck during the 

 smallpox epidemic. He sold the bundle to his son-in-law, a normal 

 transfer pattern for the Mandan who practiced clan-inheritance of 

 tribal bundles, and thus the bundle passed to the Awaxawi village of 

 Hidatsa. At that time both the Hidatsa and Awatixa had Goose 

 societies associated with male singers owning rights in Old-Woman- 

 Who-Never-Dies bundles. In 1845, when the three Hidatsa villages 

 united, the three Goose societies were united into a single organization. 



The purchase of the society was a group transaction. Young 

 women who had belonged to the Enemy society, and any others who 

 might wish to belong to the Goose society, met with the Goose society 

 members to obtain their permission to buy. Since the society was 

 chiefly concerned with agricultural pursuits, those showing little 

 interest in the gardens generally did not care to buy. Meetings were 

 held at the principal male singer's lodge. At Fishhook Village the 

 Hidatsa met at Bear-Looks-Out's lodge until he transferred his Sacred 

 Skull bundle to Poor Wolf, after which the meetings were held at 

 the latter's lodge. During this period, the Mandans met at the 

 lodge of Moves Slowly, he being the principal singer for the Mandan 

 Goose society and the owner of the Good-Furred-Robe bundle. When 

 one group was buying, they brought in food for 60 consecutive nights 

 and placed it in rows inside the lodge. Young men who had been 

 successful in war, two from each society, were selected to run toward 

 the meat while the women cried. Afterward food was passed around 

 to the seUing group. 



Women were usually between the ages of 30 and 40 when they 

 entered the society. In addition to this age-grade group, one young 

 girl was selected by the principal singer to carry their pipe on certain 

 occasions and to present the pipe and dried meat to the principal 

 singer. The younger member represented the duck and smaller 

 water birds while the other female members represented geese. The 



