294 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



lation on the Missouri above the Heart River and on the tributary 

 streams to the southwest and who had enjoyed a long period of 

 friendship with some Mandan groups; and (2) the eastern Hidatsa- 

 Crow groups who lived on the Sheyenne River, other western tribu- 

 taries of the Red River northward, and across into southern Canada 

 until late in the prehistoric period when they moved onto the Missouri 

 as the Awaxawi, Hidatsa, and River Crow. That these native 

 concepts of migrations and ethnic relationships may have some authen- 

 ticity is suggested by the archeological situation in these traditional 

 regions: At Lower Hidatsa site 34, the traditional home of the Awatixa 

 at the mouth of Knife River, the deep refuse accumulations indicate 

 a long occupation. 



The Hidatsa think of the ceremonies deriving from the two sacred 

 myths as knots on a string. The string represents a sequence of 

 events and the knots, the various ceremonies. No individual or small 

 group of individuals knew aU of the parts of either the myths or the 

 ceremonies deriving from them. Instead, a bundle owner would know 

 all of the details of the particular ceremony in which he held rights 

 and its position in the series with respect to the ceremonies immedi- 

 ately preceding and succeeding his own. Thus, the entire sacred 

 myth was divided into segments which were entrusted for preservation 

 to various individuals of the group. Those ceremonies which were 

 derived from the same sacred myth or similar situations involving 

 the same culture heroes or mythological characters were felt to belong 

 together. The authority for certain individuals to attend whenever 

 a related ceremony was being performed was derived from these 

 relationships. It is usually difficult to understand by what right 

 certain individuals were permitted or expected to attend ceremonies 

 until one knows the details of the sacred myth from which each 

 authority was derived. 



We find the two sacred myths merging at the point where the 

 Thunderbird bundles were founded and Grandson returned to the 

 sky. Two Men, the founders of the Sun Dance, traveled out from 

 the Missouri and found other Hidatsa-River Crow living at Devils 

 Lake. Thereafter we see an intermixture of scenes, both on the 

 Missouri and at Devils Lake, after which the population gathers along 

 the Missouri, the River Crows move away and take with them the 

 Tobacco rites, and a new series of rites is founded by some village 

 groups and borrowed by the others. 



According to native beliefs, the ceremonial life continued to be 

 enriched until about A.D. 1875. The older rites of this series had 

 been integrated into the culture pattern so effectively that if they 

 were borrowed from other tribes this fact was no longer recognized by 

 my informants. There is an intermediate series, however, repre- 



