Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 249 



matter or he could go further by using the occasion to embarrass 

 both the wife and her eloper by casting her off with an elaborate 

 public display of gifts. This Bobtail Bull does to the embarrassment 

 of the elopers and the ridicule of their joking relatives who tease 

 the eloper by saying that his new wife is so poor "that he has been 

 paid to take her." When a second wife elopes, Bobtail Bull was 

 frustrated in his chiefly ambitions; no longer could he invite the old 

 men to his lodge, for he has only his mother-in-law and a young 

 unmarried sister-in-law in the lodge. By this time it is evident 

 that a conspiracy exists to hold him back by depriving him of the 

 assistance of his wives. He resolves to take out his anger on the 

 tribe's enemies rather than on his own group, and at the same time 

 humiliate the elopers by adding further military honors. We see 

 that his brothers, clansmen, and friends volunteer to assist him. 

 Returning with military honors, he sends for his second wife and again 

 embarrasses her and her new husband by dressing her in good clothing 

 and sending her back with a good horse. The only thing that the 

 wife's brother could do to resolve the situation was to provide another 

 wife. In this case another sister was substituted; the children 

 remained in the household under the care of their grandmother and 

 the new mother. 



Village cleavage was then complete; those who had come from 

 Hidatsa village and a few Mandan families looked to Bobtail Bull, 

 owner of the Earthnaming bundle from Hidatsa village; the Awaxawi 

 and Awatixa were represented by Poor Wolf, the bundle owner from 

 Awaxawi. There was little that the former could do to extend his 

 authority within the village. Poor Wolf's faction held intact. It 

 was at this time that a Crow Indian visiting at the village indicated 

 a desire to become Bobtail Bull's "son" through the medium of the 

 medicine pipe. To complete the ceremony, Bobtail Bull and a few 

 of his friends went to the Crow camp where his "son" indicated a 

 desire to go on the warpath with Bobtail Bull as leader. Again he 

 won military honors, extended his kin to include many Crows, and 

 returned to Fishhook with scalps, fine goods, and many horses. At 

 this point Four Dancers remarks that Bobtail Bull does not keep 

 the things he received of the Crows. Instead, he passes the things 

 on to his "brothers and sisters" as payment for past help and future 

 assistance when he gives further feasts to the older men. This point 

 brings out the advantage one with many brothers and sisters and 

 membership in a large clan enjoys. Here we have one of the factors 

 giving rise to the rapid reduction and assimilation of clans occurring 

 among the Mandan and Hidatsa during the 19th century. 



Probably the most significant feature of this conflict was the opposi- 

 tion of the next older age-group headed by Poor Wolf which should have 



