Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 257 



Cherry Necklace took down the otter skin and wet it all over and said to the 

 people, "I am not holy at all; I can't do anything by myself. But the otter is 

 the one I get my powers from." 



Cherry Necklace spoke to the otter saying, "It is you who has the powers. 

 You should cure this man so the people can see with their own eyes what you can 

 do." Then he sang the Otter songs. 



He dipped the otter skin under the water and when he took his hand away the 

 second time the otter came up on the other side of Cherry Necklace and swam 

 over to Four Bears, touching the spot where he was wounded. When the otter 

 backed away from the wound, blood came out. Then the otter swam to Four 

 Bear's back and did the same thing. The otter did that four times and then 

 Cherry Necklace said, "I am glad that this wounded man is going to be healed." 



Cherry Necklace instructed Four Bears to wash his head in the river and drink 

 a little water. Then the clansmen helped him back to his lodge where Cherry 

 Necklace continued to sing the holy songs. It was not long until he was walking 

 about again. Cherry Necklace was highly respected, for he had succeeded in 

 saving the life of a great war leader. 



Four Bears was consulted when the people were looking for a new village site 

 and because the people were accustomed to put up offerings for the buffaloes at 

 Fishhook Bend, he thought it would be a good place to build, but he did not take 

 part in the ceremonies when the village was built. 



The above describes warfare of the first half of the 19th century. 

 Unlike the Four Dancers narratives of his own father, in which he 

 explains each event in terms of his father's ambitions to eminence 

 traditionally enjoyed by the owner of the Earthnaming bundle, Bears 

 Arm relates the principal military adventures of one who was destined 

 to attain top rank as war chief during the critical years of village dis- 

 organization following the smallpox epidemic of 1837. While Four 

 Dancers belabors the misfortunes of his grandfather. Guts, who 

 eventually relinquished the bundle to his son. Bobtail Bull, he says 

 little of other ceremonial roles which the bundle owner traditionally 

 enjoyed. Perhaps initial interest in the Poor Wolf bundle stems from 

 the fact that, during the period of village disorganization between 

 1837 and 1845, the Hidatsa-proper had indicated the intention of re- 

 joining the River Crow from whom they had separated not long before. 

 In fact, many Hidatsa families had actually gone west and were en- 

 couraging the rest of the village to join them. At this time the 

 Awatixa and Awaxawi, whose separation from the western Crow had 

 occurred long before, decided to remain on the Missouri and live much 

 as they had before the epidemic. 



In the Bears Arm narrative of Four Bears, we are concerned with 

 the life history of one who, through inheritance of Wolf bundles from 

 his father. Two Tails, received his principal distinctions as a military 

 leader rather than as the director and supervisor of certain aspects of 

 the village ceremonial life. We find that after giving the Wolf 

 ceremony to acquire his father's bundle rights, he dreamed of six enemies 

 and a white horse, thus establishing prior rights to them. Bears Arm 



