350 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 194 



the young man to the lodge where the family lived and informed Brave- While- 

 Young that he should perform the Bear ceremony the following year when all the 

 holy people would attend. 



Brave-While- Young worked 1 year preparing for the ceremony. Twenty robes 

 and twenty pairs of moccasins were needed, for the bear has ten fingers and 

 ten toes. Spring Boy and Lodge Boy were to bring their holy bow and arrows 

 to present to Brave- While- Young. All the animals would be there and the 

 buffalo, bear, elk, deer, and dog would have special parts. Two Men would 

 make the rattle, cover it with an owl's skin, and decorate it with raven feathers; 

 First Creator would provide a snare with which to catch the enemies. The gods 

 would bless the young man and wish him success. The buffaloes would stay near 

 the village. He would be able to doctor the sick with the bear and remove 

 arrow points or other foreign objects from the body with the aid of the sacred 

 arrows. 



When the appointed time came, the gods arrived and the ceremony was per- 

 formed as outlined by the grizzly bear. All the Grizzly Bear bundles began with 

 that ceremony although variations occur in some family lines because of sub- 

 sequent visions. 



Bears Arm traced his Bear bundle rites back patrilineally to liis 

 great grandfather, Crow Bull, of Awaxawi village. He believed, 

 however, that there was an unbroken patrilineal line from Two Men 

 and Brave- While- Young to Crow Bull even though he did not know 

 and had never heard the names of the intermediate bundle owners. 

 There were hereditary bundle owners in each of the three former 

 Hidatsa villages where ritualistic differences between villages were 

 assumedly no greater than between individual bundle lines within 

 the same village. Only two hereditary bundle lines were unbroken 

 as a result of smallpox deaths in 1837. Cherry Necklace held the 

 bundle from Hidatsa and Bears Arm's father, Old- Woman-Crawling, 

 from Awaxawi. Purchase was inspired by repeated visions of the 

 father's bundle or characters and events associated with the bundle. 

 WhUe inheritance was traditionally from father to son, one exception 

 was made for Black Shield who, as a result of repeated dreams, 

 bought from Cherry Necklace, his maternal grandmother's brother.^^ 

 Later, Cherry Necklace also sold to a son, High Hump. It appears 

 from native analyses that one not of the patrilineal line would not 

 be denied the right to purchase a new bundle should he have appro- 

 priate reappearing visions. The first step was to put on a medicine 

 feast to the family's bundle; then, if the visions persisted, the Bear 

 bundle owners met and consented to a bundle purchase ceremony. 



Bears Arm provided the following narrative relative to the 

 ceremony: 



Crow Bull went out fasting on the hills called Rainy Buttes for 7 days and nights 

 at a time. Each time he fasted he had a good dream, but none of them satisfied 



" Mandan inlieritance from the mother's brother or the maternal grandmother's brother was a normal 

 occurrence. Bears Arm (Awaxawi) considered Black Shield's case rather exceptional, although he could 

 recall other purchases made through the mother line at Awaxawi village. 



