Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 343 



arrangement was followed as long as the Nuptadi Mandan remained 

 below the Knife River. The great prestige of the Mandan Corn rites 

 is indicated by the fact that Bear-Looks-Out was selected over all 

 other Corn bundle owners to represent the southern direction when 

 Fishhook Village was built. Concerning this event Curtis (1907 a, 

 p. 138) wrote, quoting Bear-Looks- Around (Out), "My lodge shall 

 represent the lodge of Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies. It shall stand 

 to the south whence the warm winds come that they may cause the 

 plants to grow. As her garden prospered so shall it be with my 

 people." 



As long as the Mandans remained divided into two groups, those 

 of Nuptadi living below the Knife River and the Nuitadi at Fishhook 

 Village with the survivors of the Hidatsa villages, only two Goose 

 societies existed. The Hidatsa and Mandan at Fishhook had a 

 single society whose singers were the Mandan and Hidatsa Old- 

 Woman-Who-Never-Dies bundle owners and the Skull bundle ov/ner. 

 At Nuptadi village, the singers for the society were the Robe bundle 

 o-svner and Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies bundle owners. When the 

 final union of the Mandans at Fishhook occurred around 1860, a 

 reorganization of the membership of the Goose societies occurred. 

 The Mandan formed a single society with the Robe bundle owner as 

 the principal singer while the three Hidatsa village groups met 

 independently with the Skull bundle owner as principal singer. 

 This situation continued until part of the Hidatsa separated under 

 Bobtail Bull and Crow-Flies-High to build near Fort Buford. Those 

 women who had rights in the Goose society organized anew at Fort 

 Buford, but for a number of years had no singer. Then Crow-Flies- 

 High "took up" his father's rites in the Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies, 

 which had died out at his death in 1837 from smallpox, and the women 

 then invited him to become their singer. Fishhook Village continued 

 to support two Goose societies; a Hidatsa society with Bear-Looks- 

 Around (Out) and later Poor Wolf the principal singer, and a Mandan 

 society with Moves Slowly the principal singer. Bear-Looks-Around 

 had the Mandan Skull bundle and Moves Slowly had the Robe 

 bundle. Only at Fort Buford was the Goose society organization 

 not associated with a Mandan Corn bundle. 



Although the Goose society, Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies, the 

 Skull, and the Robe rites tended to fuse into a single ritual containing 

 features of all four ceremonies during the 19th century, complete 

 union of the four ceremonies had not been achieved when the aboriginal 

 societies collapsed. Each bundle ceremony had its separate songs 

 and rites which were still recognized by the older informants at the 

 time this study was made. The singer, when performing at the 

 request of the Goose society, sang only the society songs unless paid 



