Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 221 



The Hidatsa were continuously plagued with unauthorized mili- 

 tary expeditions led by irresponsible young men. The weight of 

 disapproval rested primarily with the "father" of the young man 

 indicating a desire to go out, and it was his duty to cancel these so- 

 cially disapproved expeditions. In these matters, the father should 

 be obeyed. The Hidatsa villages were not so large that news of a 

 contemplated expedition did not spread quickly. Collectively, the 

 fathers of all of the boys carried considerable prestige. Although the 

 Black Mouths enforced the edict against war parties leaving on 

 occasions when the public welfare required that all remain in the 

 village for the mutual defense of the group, such crises generally were 

 met successfully by the prestige relatives, the "fathers." The various 

 families, however, were greatly concerned for the safety of their 

 untrained youths. Since a leader must have warriors to make up his 

 party, the older people usually were successful in breaking up any plans 

 of an ambitious but unqualified leader simply by securing invitations 

 for their young men from recognized successful leaders leaving soon 

 on a raid. Nevertheless, young men did, from time to time, bypass 

 most of the requirements for military leadership. 



When a competent war leader was in the territory where an un- 

 authorized group of young men was looking for horses, it was common 

 practice to waylay them and embarrass them before their relatives and 

 friends at home. The most common way of doing this was to observe 

 the young men from a distance until they had tied up their horses for 

 the night and had put their arms aside to eat and sing about their girls. 

 Then, during the night, one group would steal the horses while others 

 sneaked up to the camp, rushed the unsuspecting fellows, and struck 

 them with whips or seized them as though they were enemies, all the 

 while calling to each other 'T have struck one Sioux" or "this Sioux 

 was not very smart; he doesn't know how to protect himself." By 

 calling out when making the charge, the young men were informed 

 that the attacking party was of their own tribesmen. Nevertheless, 

 the attacking group endeavored to inflict severe beatings on the young 

 fellows and to frighten them so that in the future they would avoid 

 surprise attacks. 



About 1872 a war party was out under the leadership of Kidney in 

 the Devils Lake region when the scouts reported seeing two men 

 approaching driving two horses. The leader directed the party to 

 wait until late in the evening when the two men would be engaged 

 preparing their meal as the best time to make the attack. Kidney's 

 men crept in close and led the stolen horses away from the camp. 

 One large horse was gentle and Crows Heart recognized it in the dark 

 by its large joints as belonging to Bear Necklace. Kidney did not 

 believe him so the horse was taken back to their camp and examined 



