250 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



been a respect group according to traditional behavior. In this 

 crisis situation, Bobtail Bull alines with Crow-Flies-High who, 

 although entitled to enter the fraternity of traditional bundle owners 

 by virture of descent from one owning rights in the Old- Worn an-Who- 

 Never-Dies rites, flaunts tradition and establishes a personal bundle 

 without the benefit of public ceremonies. Orphaned by the smallpox 

 epidemic of 1837 and poor in his youth, he followed a different course 

 from that of most of the other young men ; when his age-grade group 

 fasted during the organized rites, having no close relative to put up 

 goods, he could not compete with the larger households. He avoided 

 fasting on these occasions to seek visions alone on the prairies. But he 

 often went out with others on the war path, winning more honors than 

 those who had followed the traditional course. Like others of his 

 age-grade group who had won honors without the benefit of public 

 rites and many who had come from Hidatsa village and had been 

 in closer contacts with the River Crow from whom they were recently 

 separated, they shared the belief that personal and individual fasting 

 was as effective in bringing good luck as fasting during the formalized 

 rites or the purchase of tribal bundles. 



Crow-Flies-High's action in assuming authority against the re- 

 spected older age-grade group was equivalent to overthrowing the 

 entire traditional system, and has been largely explained by the 

 more conservative element as ignorance due to his early training 

 without the benefit of close relatives to advise him. However, the 

 confhct as I see it was more deep-seated than that; the village group 

 from which he came traditionally conformed more closely to the 

 Crow pattern, being more closely associated physically with that 

 group. His actions on the occasion of the division of the 50 cattle 

 would have been normal for the Crow but were outside the pattern 

 of group behavior for either of the other two Hidatsa village groups 

 or the Mandan. 



A significant aspect of the conflict was the new role that Bobtail 

 Bull assumed as Earthnaming bundle owner and symbol of the 

 traditional peace role of this bundle owner. Note how he first ordered 

 Crow-Flies-High to return to his lodge; this is indeed a demonstration 

 of authority rarely manifested. We see the authority and symbolic 

 significance of the bundles manifested in the orientation of the popula- 

 tion according to allegiance to one or the other of the two competing 

 Earthnaming bundles. Even the police authority was immobihzed 

 because the Black Mouths membership took sides individually. 



At this time. Bobtail Bull and Crow-Flies-High both belonged to 

 the police society while the chiefs whom they wished to replace were 

 in the next older age-group. This was a distinct revolt against the 

 established age-grade structure. The instructions in traditional lore. 



