Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 293 



myth then went on to explain the origin of Holy Women partici- 

 pation in the various ceremonies, certain Buffalo Calling rites, Snake 

 Curing rites, Black Medicine rites with the red baneberry root, and 

 the institution of village police. 



At this point in the sacred narrative Moon caused an Awatixa 

 village woman to follow a porcupine into a high cottonwood tree. 

 She found herself on the land above where she married Moon for 

 whom she bore his son, later to be named Grandson. Because Grand- 

 son was the son of one of the sky people he was very holy even as a 

 small child. When his mother was killed by a stone thrown down as 

 she attempted to escape from Moon, Grandson fell into Old-Woman- 

 Who-Never-Dies' garden. *^ 



The exploits of Grandson form the basis for the introduction of 

 additional sacred rites and practices, chief of which are the Old- 

 Woman-Who-Never-Dies rites, Snake Curing rites, altar rites of 

 Eagle Trapping, Sacred Arrow rites, Bear with Arrow rites, Eagle 

 Trapping rites, Fish Trapping rites, Buffalo Corral rites, the Stone 

 Hammer society, and Star Bundle rites. 



Grandson's quarrel with Yellow Dog also laid the traditional 

 foundation for the origin of the four Dog Societies. Then, in anger 

 towards the people for whom he had done so much but from whom he 

 had received so little, he returned to the sky after announcing that 

 he would destroy any village that thereafter made sacred offerings 

 to him. 



After the return of Grandson to the sky, the two myths converge 

 into a single one involving the more recent traditional and mythological 

 history of the three village groups stUl recognized. The various 

 gods formerly living with the people are believed to have then moved 

 to various places in the universe to assume protective roles for the 

 people by means of the many major and minor rites and ceremonies. 



In native theory, all of the Hidatsa village groups had by then 

 taken their relative positions on the Missouri; the former village groups 

 originating with Charred Body had been named and, through inter- 

 mixture in a reduced number of villages, had become the clans. Six 

 clans later went back to the sky to become one of the constellations, 

 leaving seven clans and one lineage of the Xura at the Awatixa 

 villages. When the Hidatsa-proper and Awaxawi came to the 

 Missouri to live, they traditionally adopted the seven clans of the 

 Awatixa. 



According to native concepts, the two principal sacred narratives 

 were associated with two different ethnic groups of the Hidatsa and 

 Crow: (1) the Awatixa and Crow, who represented an early popu- 



<' This garden and lodge were situated near the Holding Eagle home in the southeastern edge of the Fort 

 Berthold Reservation. For an archeological study of the lodge, see Woolworth, 1956. 



710-195 — 65 20 



