Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 223 



had distinguished themselves, and repeat the names of relatives who 

 had contributed to the success of the military expedition. The men- 

 tion of a relative's name was an occasion to bring forth presents to be 

 given away in the name of the one so distinguishing himself. Hearing 

 that a young man had distinguished himself as a camp tender and had 

 shown great interest in getting a good reputation, other war leaders 

 would compete for his services, even promising him a higher position 

 as a scout. 



OFFENSIVE WARFARE 



Offensive warfare was primarily pursued as a result of a vision in 

 which one was instructed to go out in a particular direction or to a 

 certain spot v/here honors would come to the one following all the 

 prescribed rules set down by the guardian spirit. In one instance the 

 vision recipient would be promised a specified number of horses to be 

 distinguished by distinctive features, such as color or the manner in 

 which they were grazing. In other instances, a specified number of 

 enemy lodges or households were "seen" in the vision. However, the 

 Hidatsa did not approve of young untrained men's expeditions away 

 from the village. When a young man reported his vision to his 

 household, particularly the father or an older brother-in-law occupying 

 the position of father, he was advised to accompany an older and 

 better-trained leader in the hope that the things revealed to him in the 

 vision would come true, or to forego taking possession of that which 

 had been promised him in the vision until a later time. So, at any 

 time, there would be many individuals claiming ownership of horses or 

 scalps of which they had never been able to take possession. Frequent- 

 ly, in the social and ceremonial activities of the village, an older man 

 too feeble to go out on military expeditions "gave" to a "son" his 

 rights to certain horses encountered under the conditions described in 

 his earlier dreams. Then, regardless of the person first seeing a 

 peculiarly marked horse, the horse was delivered to the one having 

 prior right to it by vision or purchase from this "father." 



A young man who had given numerous feasts to the older men of 

 the father's clan frequently had a number of these claims to complete. 

 If one was anxious to go out to take possession of these animals, the 

 older people of the household and of the clan benefiting most by the 

 completion of the claim were the first to discourage individual ini- 

 tiative by young men, or someone of the household skilled in warfare 

 would volunteer to serve as military leader and invite others to assist 

 him in making up the war party. Offensive warfare was conducted 

 entirely on the basis of vision instructions either as the result of one's 

 own visions or the visions bought from another who had never com- 

 pleted his prior claims. These visions were received during the priva- 



