Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 389 



When I was 9 years old, the people went out hunting and ran nine Santee 

 Sioux into a pocket where they built a fort. There was a fight and four of our 

 men were killed. A man named Little Bear was in the fight and he would say, 

 "If we stay around here we will all be killed; we should jump into the hole and 

 drive them out." 



He tried and was killed. Then Bluestone went toward them with his sacred 

 spear but he was killed before he reached the fort. Cedar was next; he jumped 

 into the fort killed one enemy, and then he was killed. By that time six of 

 our people were killed and we had only one of theirs. 



Chokecherry said, "Wait until I can see how to get rid of those eight enemies. 

 Bear Necklace, my son-in-law, stand in front of me. All you young men stand 

 with him. Each time I sing, you make a noise. When I have sung the fourth 

 time, run over there, jump into that hole and kill them. Bear Necklace will 

 take my shield and bear bundle. You will never get killed so long as I sing 

 my song. The song I will sing is the one I was taught bj'^ the grizzly bears in 

 my dream. Do not be afraid." 



Each time he sang, he shook the chokecherry brush in imitation of the bears. 

 When the song was sung the fourth time, the young men jumped into the fort, 

 killed all of the enemies, and butchered them with their knives. 



In the fight. Bear Heart was shot between the two bones of the lower arm. 

 It was only a flesh wound but he came to my mother to cure him for she had 

 the right to doctor the wounded from a dream she had from the mink in her 

 Creek bundle. She sang "It is badly smashed by the bullet but he will recover." 



When she sold her bundle, she passed the New Mink song on to her children." 



When her grandchildren had high fevers, she would doctor them. She would 

 not take pay from her own children as she had in mind being of assistance to 

 her own children when she bought the ceremony. Outsiders were required to 

 pay well before she would doctor. 



TYING-THE-POTS 



This ceremony, performed at Awaxawi village, had no precise 

 equivalent at any other Mandan or Hidatsa villages. It was, accord- 

 ing to traditions, a popular rainmaking ceremony at Awaxawi and 

 was performed annually during the hottest part of the summer. 

 This important summer ceremony occupied the same prominent 

 position at Awaxawi that the NaxpikE or Sun Dance did at the other 

 two villages. 



It was not possible to identify any survivor or older descendant of 

 that village who had ever participated in the NaxpikE as bundle 

 purchaser. This would indicate recent union with the other two 

 groups, too short a time for complete intergroup borrowing of their 

 respective ceremonial bundles. Informants recalled, however, several 

 of their older relatives who had participated in the summer Tying- 

 the-Pots or the Mandan Okipa ceremonies.*^ 



Like other native traditions concerning clay pots, the sacred origin 

 myth for the ceremony relates the experiences of the snake people. 



" Here we find an Instance of ritual enrichment, 



'- This group has traditions of residence on the tributaries of the Red River until early historic times. 



710-195—65 ^26 



