230 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



Kidney told us that he was picking out five men to go out and see if there were 

 any more. When the five scouts left, the rest of us rode on. Soon we saw one 

 rider but when we looked in the opposite direction we saw a number of riders 

 coming toward us. We fought them while the five scouts went after the lone 

 man whom they killed. So the five scouts got the best of us. Before they left 

 that morning, Flying Eagle asked Crows Breast to pray for him so that he would 

 be successful when he met the enemy. Crows Breast sang his holy songs and 

 said, "My son will get the best of the enemy" and he let Flying Eagle carry his 

 medicine bundle. 



In the battle. Flying Eagle was ahead, carrying Crows Breast's sacred bundle, 

 so he killed the enemy and was first to strike him. Then came One Wing and 

 after him came Red Robe. The other scouts rushed in; Hard Horn claimed he 

 hit with his gun on the man's head and Good Bear claimed that place too so no 

 honors were given for the fourth coup since none could be certain. 



While the scouts were killing and striking the single enemy, the rest of us fought 

 with the other enemies. There were about 30 of them. We shouted, sang our 

 medicine songs, and rattled our tongues so that the enemy could not shoot straight 

 and they did the same. When they heard our scouts singing the victory songs, 

 the enemy rode away. We came together singing and all had a good time, for 

 we knew what Crows Breast had promised before the battle had come true. 

 When Hard Horn fasted by the hawk's nest, Dancing Flag and I prayed for him; 

 nevertheless, he did not get the best record. He struck fourth with others, 

 however, so we did not get credit for our prayers in his behalf. 



The credit went to Kidney for one of his men killed the enemy. These enemies 

 were Hunkpapa; afterwards we used to visit them often. Shortly afterward 

 we discovered 20 tipis and farther on there were hundreds of tipis. We knew 

 that we had been reported so our leader thought that we should go west as the 

 enemy would think that we had left for home. We learned afterwards that the 

 Sioux thought that we were Crows and that it would do no good to follow us, 

 not knowing that we were Mandans and Hidatsas. 



We traveled long hours until we reached the Little Missouri west of the Killdeer 

 Mountains where it is rough. We found a good place to rest the horses. While 

 we camped there. Kidney fixed the scalp; he cleaned the flesh off it, stretched it 

 on a circular stick, and dried it over the fire. The hair was long; it was divided 

 between Kidney and the four leaders he appointed to assist him when we camped 

 the first day. We were tired so we stopped to hunt while the older men sang 

 their victory songs at the camp. 



When we got back to the village, we painted our faces black, and ran between 

 the lodges shouting and firing our guns. Then the people brought out the big 

 drums and all the people danced. Everyone was happy, for Kidney had proved 

 that the ceremony that he had just performed had great supernatural powers. 



The above narrative by Wolf Chief brings out numerous significant 

 behavior patterns. Wolf Chief first emphasized that Kidney was 

 instructed to organize a military expedition in a dream he had shortly 

 after he bought rights in the Wolf ceremony owned by his father. 

 We see that the expedition was socially approved by the acceptance 

 of invitations by numerous individuals highly respected for their 

 own military achievements; in fact, Kidney's status at that time 

 was not as high as several of his party. When the party first left, 

 it was not known whether he would select coleaders or assume the 



