Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 323 



the long house he afterward learned represented the store that he had for a 

 number of years. Porcupine Pemmican promised him during the ceremony that 

 he would be a leader among his people and the Government named him a judge 

 to try Indian cases and he was judge until he died. 



Expressed in social status, one giving the ceremony — although 

 highly respected — did not otherwise enjoy a higher position than 

 those who had performed other socially recognized rites. 



Woman Above and Holy Women Ceremonies 



According to native traditions, shortly after First Creator and 

 Lone Man had created the earth and the male animals, a mysterious 

 or holy woman named VUlage-Old-Woman living in the southland 

 learned of this new land. She resolved to create females of each 

 species created by First Creator and Lone Man in order to perpetuate 

 life, and to give the people female creatures to worship. For each 

 species of living males created by the other two culture heroes, she 

 created females to serve as gods as well as food for the people who 

 were to inhabit the earth. Long after she had done this, she heard 

 of the people living near the Ejiife River and followed the Missouri 

 River underground to its source in the Rocky Mountains, failing to 

 find the village. In her searches for the people she dug deep trenches, 

 producing the valley in which the stream and its tributaries flow. 



She returned underground to Knife River where she entered the 

 womb of a young woman and thus was born into the village. When 

 she grew to maturity she created the "Holy Women in the groves of 

 the four directions," Woman Above, and all other female deities. 

 From time to time she introduced new ceremonies and practices 

 which the people adopted. Because she created both the Holy 

 Women and Woman Above, she introduced many common sacred 

 objects for these sacred bundles and ruled that whenever a ceremony 

 was performed, rites should also be performed for the Holy Women 

 whom she had created. 



According to native belief the two ceremonies — Holy Women and 

 Woman Above — did not begin at the same time. The Holy Women 

 are mentioned in the myths of Unknown Man prior to the founding 

 of the NaxpikE rites and it is believed that rites to these women go 

 back to the beginning of time when the two sexes were created and 

 Village-Old- Woman was born into the tribe, bringing to the people 

 her supernatural powers. In the Unknown Man myth the Holy 

 Women bring meat and cover the scaffolds during a fog sent to the 

 village by Two Men (see p. 307). Reference to the Holy Women 

 is made in most of the ceremonies. 



In historic times the Holy Women religious society was composed 

 of aged females who had bought their rights individually from their 



