Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 205 



for the purpose of bringing the winter buffaloes to the village. This 

 was the highest of the organized age-grade women's societies known 

 to the Hidatsa and Mandan. The society was of Mandan origin, 

 according to both Mandan and Hidatsa informants, and does not 

 appear to have been of long existence with the Hidatsa, Although 

 Maximilian did not include the society in his Hidatsa series, Matthews 

 (1877) listed it in his Hidatsa series as of Mandan origin. Boiler gave 

 a detailed eyewitness account of the winter buffalo-calling rites 

 belonging to this society which is essentially the same as that furnished 

 me by the older Hidatsa who recalled the particular winter and in- 

 cidents mentioned by Boiler (1868). 



According to traditions, a Mandan was fasting on a high hill during 

 the shortest and coldest nights of the winter. Each night he heard 

 a voice above the noise of the wind and drifting snow. On the fourth 

 night the voice was so near and distinct that he could distinguish 

 the words. The voice kept repeating, "Put a child with them." 



Soon a man came carrying two children. The man said to the 

 faster, "I am going to give you these children. Prepare a feast 

 of corn and I will come. I am the buffalo. When the feast is ready, 

 I will come and then you will have winter buffaloes with you always." 



The faster returned to the village and told the people of his ex- 

 periences. He asked that a feast be prepared, using all the dif- 

 ferent kinds of corn, and he selected two old women to care for the 

 small children. Soon a party of strange women arrived and showed 

 the people how to perform the dance. Then the strange women ate 

 the food prepared for them. When these buffalo women left, the 

 two buffalo children struggled to free themselves to accompany 

 their mothers. One escaped and the other was raised in the village 

 as an Indian. Each year when the women dressed up and danced, the 

 buffaloes would come back to see the little child who danced with 

 them. The buffalo women would bring the winter buffalo herds with 

 them. 



Women not yet through the menopause were not permitted to 

 join the society as it was believed that menstrual blood would drive 

 the buffaloes away. This was in direct contrast to the belief that 

 menstrual flows were "good" for the gardens. After the existing 

 group had owned the society for 8 or 10 years, and the membership 

 of the society was getting small from the death of its members, 

 women who had belonged to the Goose society and such others as 

 wished to belong to the White Buffalo Cow society, met and organized 

 a temporary society for the purpose of negotiating for the purchase 

 of the society rights from the older women. All ceremonies and 

 negotiations were conducted after the gardens had been harvested 

 in the fall and prior to the normal time for the return of the water 



