Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 219 



village of Nuptadi). In the case of a few alien bands of small size 

 that had maintained frequent contacts with the Hidatsa and were 

 known individually to all of the young Hidatsa, learning that an en- 

 campment was of their acquaintances, they went into the camp to 

 visit rather than to steal their horses. In one instance, a war party 

 of young Hidatsas went to Devils Lake to steal horses from the Sioux. 

 Discovering that the horses stolen during the night were those which 

 their people had given to a band of Chippewas a few weeks before to 

 send them away happy, and knowing that their relatives would 

 disapprove of stealing horses from their friends, they drove the horses 

 back into the Chippewa camp, telling them of their mistake. The 

 young men of the two tribes then organized a common raid on a distant 

 Sioux camp. Even as late as the 1850's, warriors of friendly bands 

 would come to Fishhook Village to visit when on the way to the Arikara 

 village at Fort Clark to steal horses. 



TRAINING 



No other aspect of the culture received as much attention as warfare. 

 As soon as a boy was old enough to walk, he was given a bow and ar- 

 rows; childhood games emphasized military adventures in imitation 

 of their elders. Observing the behavior of the older people as they 

 danced and sang the victory songs when a successful war party re- 

 turned, or wept when the party was unsuccessful, the small children 

 would, with the encouragement of their elders, go on imaginary war 

 expeditions although the enemy defeated was often only a young 

 gopher or rabbit. Waving the dead animal, and with their faces 

 blackened with the dirt from a pocket gopher's mound, they would 

 come into the village or a make-believe village consisting of old 

 hides hung over bushes, singing the victory songs and waving their 

 trophies. The little girls, pretending to be the sisters or the wives of 

 the warriors, would paint up, often with the help of their older rela- 

 tives, and dance as the young women of the Enemy, River, or other 

 societies did. 



As children grew older they could observe the preparation of young 

 men for military careers: the, at first, brief attempts to endure the 

 tortures of the 4-day fasts during the Sun Dance or the Wolf ceremony; 

 the prolonged fasts during the ceremonies providing opportunities 

 for self-torture or the organized fasts under the supervision of old war 

 leaders; and, finally, long sustained fasting either alone on the prairies, 

 at the skull circles, or about the vUlage when thongs were inserted 

 into their flesh by which they were suspended or buffalo skulls were 

 dragged. Equally important in molding the young man's character 

 were the visible positive awards by which the society recognized 

 military achievements; the public parade with the victor mounted 



