Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 351 



him. He thought that if he fasted more he would see something with his own 

 eyes without having to dream about it. On the seventh day of the seventh time 

 out, during the middle of the forenoon, he cut off the first finger next to the 

 thumb. He cut all the flesh off with a piece of sharp flint and the blood spurted 

 out. 



He cried from the top of the butte. Soon he heard someone back of him singing, 

 "He is the one I can depend on." 



He looked up as a small cloud passed over the butte. There was a large bear 

 standing on the butte, also, trying to look over the rim to see who was doing the 

 singing. All this time Crow Bull could hear the singing at his back. The singer 

 said, "When he (meaning the grizzly bear) does that, he always overcomes what he 

 has in mind." 



Then the cloud over the butte passed on. The voice said, "You have always 

 wanted to see these things with your own eyes and not in a dream; now you have 

 seen them." 



Every time they passed the medicine down from father to son, there was a 

 sacred bow and arrows with it. After Crow Bull was through with his fasting and 

 crying, he thought he should go up the Little Missouri River where the railroad 

 now crosses near Sentinel Butte for the enemy who had been promised to him in 

 his dream. The Grizzly Bear had said, "Be there and though some of your men 

 will be wounded, none will be killed for you can doctor them now." 



He went to the place where he was instructed to go and sent out scouts to look 

 around. The scouts returned to tell him that they saw the enemies coming. 

 They waited for the enemies until they were nearer. When the enemies saw them, 

 they climbed one of the high buttes. The men with shields were told to go ahead 

 and all the others would follow closely behind them in a compact group. Each 

 man, using his bow and arrows, was supported by a shield carrier who walked in 

 front to deflect the arrows with his shield, thus protecting the man in back of him. 

 In this way the shields protected them and in a short time they had killed all 30 

 of the enemies. At that time there were a few horses but no guns. These people 

 were the Snake Indians so after the battle the people named the butte Snake 

 Indian Butte. 



Crow Bull's father had the Bear rites and when Crow Bull saw the bear on a- 

 cloud, his father thought that the bear wanted him to get the rights too. Crow 

 Bull gathered 20 robes and 20 pairs of moccasins that he needed for the ceremony 

 and his wife was expected to become the daughter-in-law of the bears. When she 

 did that, she could not remarry. If she should remarry again after her husband 

 died, both she and her second husband would have bad luck.^" 



Crow Bull gave the ceremony and was a successful leader both in warfare and 

 doctoring, for the bears had instructed him through his father. 



Crow Bull's son, Breathing, went out to the hills fasting and often dreamed of the 

 bears. Even at home sleeping, he dreamed of the bears and that was why he took 

 over his father's rites. 



Old- Woman-Crawling, my father and son of Breathing, was married and living 

 at Awaxawi village when the smallpox came. Even before he was married, he 

 dreamed of the bears several times. In one dream the bear was chasing the men 

 who were shooting at him, but the bullets would not penetrate. He had this 

 experience several times in his dreams. He thought that he would not have the 

 bear yet since he was not married. Once when he dreamed of the bear, he decided 

 to get the bear's ear. Each time he had a dream from the bear, he would take 



" This does not seem to apply if she married one with rights in a similar Bear bundle, particularly the 

 husband's brother. 



