260 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



used in the Hidatsa rite in which the berdache said, "I am holy; I 

 can do anything." When the arrow Four Bears shot at the berdache 

 bounced off the robe, they were convinced of his supernatural powers 

 and called off the fight. Having been successful on all other military 

 expeditions, he was not taking chances. Although his vision had 

 only been fulfilled in part, this was accomphshed without the loss of 

 any members of his party. His claim to the enemy remained; he 

 could go out again or transfer this claim to another, preferably a 

 "son." In the sale of the Bullet rites to Poor Wolf, a younger clan 

 brother. One Buffalo follows an inheritance pattern not so common 

 with the Hidatsa but highly developed with the Mandan. 



In the final account of the slaughter of the men and the capture of 

 the women and smaller children, the arguments offered for waylaying 

 this party of Assiniboin are scarcely convincing. In the first place, 

 a small party of Assiniboin would never have attempted to storm these 

 strongly fortified Awatixa and Awaxawi villages, and, in the second 

 place, it was not customary to take women and children out on military 

 expeditions. The argument served a useful purpose, however, in 

 justifying their actions in the face of White critics, although we know 

 that at this time there was a high degree of cooperation with the 

 Mandan and Arikara who would have come quickly to their assistance. 

 The Hidatsa had customarily raided small hunting bands, going to 

 the Rocky Mountains even before the advent of the horse. That 

 this attack provided an opportunity to replenish the population cannot 

 be denied, and the people quickly took advantage of this small band 

 to take possession of the women and small children. In the Hidatsa 

 society, a man who had many "children" lived materially better than 

 one with few or no children. 



Since this event occiu*red after 1837, one would expect genealogies 

 of the tribe to show many of these captives, which is not the case. 

 Actually, these captives were quickly integrated into the household 

 and clan system and are rarely mentioned as captives. Although 

 genealogies supplied by one person for other family lines do not reveal 

 this Assiniboin blood, I did not find the Hidatsas reluctant to speak 

 of their own foreign blood, although they would not freely reveal such 

 information about others. Bears Arm speaks of the escape of captive 

 women and relates that nothing was done about it when it was known 

 that they had children with the Assiniboin. I found numerous 

 instances when the Hidatsa provided captives with opportunities to 

 return to their tribes because they had small children living there, 

 as well as instances in which members of neighboring tribes came to 

 the Hidatsa and claimed their families taken captive. 



The curing rites for Four Bears followed a common pattern when 

 a doctor outside of the family was employed. Note that the clan 



