Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 273 



his horse, he indicated that his acts were for the welfare of the group 

 and not for personal gain. 



When the party found the mule and bay horse "seen" by Small 

 Ankles when he hung the Wolf bundle outside his lodge in the evening, 

 it was decided not to attack the enemy. This indicated the nature of 

 Plains warfare; do not expose yourself or your party to unnecessary 

 risks. Since Wolf Chief could not take possession of the property 

 "given" to him by the father, his claim still stood. Wolf Chief often 

 spoke of the mule and roan horse as his legitimate property which 

 he was never able to possess because warfare terminated shortly 

 thereafter. 



We see from the narrative that, when Wolf Chief had reached 24 

 years of age, he indicated his intention of going out again. On the 

 former expedition he had the ritual assistance of his father's Wolf 

 bundle. Although Wolf Chief does not say so, from other and 

 similar case studies we learn that having returned from a successful 

 mihtary expedition in which the father's bundle was used, the son 

 invariably had a vision to buy rights in the bundle. He was then 

 expected to go out on subsequent occasions as the full owner of a 

 bundle, but during the intervening year Wolf Chief took no steps 

 to perform the rites and seciu*e a bundle. Now the father said, 

 "You have enough of it. If you try again, some of your men might 

 be killed; that way you would 'kick the stone' and undo all of your 

 good luck. It takes a man who does much fasting and buys many 

 gods to go to war often without losing his luck." 



Small Ankles discounted the value of a dream because too many 

 persons were depended upon; if one participant failed in his role, 

 the entire venture failed. Moreover, paying these assistants was 

 costly. It is important for an understanding of village organization 

 and policing to note that restraints were imposed by selected individuals 

 of the household rather than the police. In a former situation we 

 found that numerous households denied their young men permission 

 to accompany WoK Chief. We must assume that on neither occasion 

 was the village in danger of attack, otherwise the older men would 

 have forbidden war parties the right to go out. Restraints would 

 have come first from the household itself, as in the case of Small 

 Ankles' denial of permission, and then from the police, in situations 

 where the households failed in their role. 



In 1876 the Government undertook to enlist scouts from the 

 village for the Custer campaign. The councils of the Arikara, 

 Hidatsa, and Mandan met separately to discuss the matter since 

 many families disapproved of the idea, feeling that the young people 

 were needed to protect the village and the horses. The Arikara 

 decided not to impose restrictions, but the Hidatsa and Mandan, 



