312 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



in certain rites as well as in supervising the preparation of the goods, 

 one must be married to a person who was unlikely to run away during 

 the period of preparation or performance of the rites. If, in the 

 opinion of the father's clansmen, the prospective candidate might 

 not be able to go through with his pledges, he was usually advised 

 to withhold making the pledge until he could "build himself up." 

 They would tell him that because of his vision, he would have good 

 luck in everything that he did just the same as though he had given 

 the ceremony. This seems to have been a common practice whenever 

 someone else was giving the ceremony during the coming summer, 

 in order to avoid repetition of the ceremony dm-ing the same summer 

 period, and to discourage an individual from making the vow until 

 he had demonstrated his qualifications for enduring the ordeals. 

 It was not necessary for one so seek advice again since it was the 

 duty of the "fathers" to notify the young man when the time had 

 come to make the vow if, in the meantime, he had distinguished 

 himself in warfare or had enjoyed other good fortune indicating that 

 he had been blessed by the gods above. 



The principal officer of the NaxpikE was the Long Arm impersonator, 

 represented by Porcupine Pemmican during the period when the 

 ceremony was performed at Fishhook Village. This Long Arm 

 bundle was formerly kept at Awatixa village and traditionally origi- 

 nated with this village gTOup. For that reason, the Hidatsa believe 

 that the Sacred Arrow rites were originally instituted by this village 

 group first to settle on the Missouri as a part of the western Crow 

 and that the ceremony was adopted by the Hidatsa-proper, River 

 Crow, and Awaxawi *^ when they came to the Missouri. As further 

 evidence that the Awatixa were the originators of the ceremony, 

 native informants cite the fact that they had seen a great many more 

 Sun Dance circles on the prairie adjacent to the old and new Awatixa 

 villages than at the villages of Hidatsa and Awaxawi. In any event, 

 there is no traditional knowledge that the ceremony was performed 

 prior to their arrival on the Missouri from the east. While at the 

 Knife River, each village depended on Awatixa for top leadership by 

 virtue of its possession of the Long Arm bundle. The ceremony was 

 always performed at the outskirts of the summer village and never 

 while away on the summer buffalo hunt. 



The preliminary preparations and the performance of the ceremony 

 brought together a great many people, some of whom had conven- 

 tional duties and obligations. When permission was given to perform 

 the NaxpikE, or any other established formal ceremony, the pledger 

 was always reminded by a father's clansman of the warning given to 



<' I found no evidence of bundle lines at Awaxawi. 



