Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 399 



that. I think those things will not be hard to find. Then we will need a scalp 

 from the enemy but I am afraid that will be even harder to find. The important 

 thing for her real powers is the jackrabbit. You find one and skin it. Tie a 

 piece of buflfalo tail to the hide. That is very important for when she goes after 

 anything she always has that. Then there must be a magpie to go with the rest 

 of the Old Woman's sacred bundle and that is very important. Pull two or 

 three of the long tail feathers of the magpie and get eagle down from the calumet 

 eagle; you v/ill need two of those feathers. Someday you may go out to attack 

 your enemy and then you can wear these down feathers. We will have to bring 

 the sweetgrass in and have it braided nicely and then folded into a circle for the 

 Old- Woman-Above used that on her breast. There will be 12 sticks (about 6 

 inches long) made of 6 sticks split into 12 and painted red. You will also be 

 given a buffalo skull." 



We pledged to give the feast at the time when the chokecherries were ripe. 

 I said to my brother, "We will have to go out southwestward to hunt bufifaloes. 

 There might be a few even though the hides wUl not be very good now. By fall 

 they will be better. By the time we get back we should have plenty of meat. 

 Then we can invite in the different societies to donate various articles for our use." 



We went out and passed Dickinson. There were my brother and myself to- 

 gether with our wives, four of us in one wagon. When we came to the Little 

 Missouri west of Dickinson, there were many tents. White men were living there. 

 They were killing all the buffaloes and we saw the meat and hides. I was angry 

 but I did not say anything even though they were leaving most of the meat to rot 

 and were just taking the hides. Many places we saw the dead animals and the 

 hides spread out. They were killing the best ones and leaving those that were too 

 poor and shaggy. We went up the Little Missouri until we came to high moun- 

 tains at the head of the river where there were many small branches to the stream. 

 We crossed and went west again, killing many fat deer and antelopes. We dried 

 the meat whenever we stopped. We continued west but we could not find any 

 fat buffaloes for the hunters were leaving only the shaggy ones, so we turned back 

 toward the Little Missouri again. 



We decided to stop there to hunt deer and trap eagles. My brother did not 

 have complete rights in eagle trapping but my father had been teachmg him a 

 little at a time, for which my brother had paid him. He thought we should try 

 to trap anyway and I thought it would be all right. We stopped in a place where 

 there was plenty of wood and good water. We saw a high butte and thought 

 that the pits should be near its base. He sang and prayed, and then we dug the 

 holes. When the pits were ready, we killed a jackrabbit, cleaned it, and filled it 

 with grass so that it looked alive. 



My brother said, "If it is good weather tomorrow I will go into my pit. If 

 the wind is not from the west, we wUl fix another pit for you." 



The next day was a fine one for trapping eagles so he went out before sunrise 

 without eating breakfast, for one was expected to fast while in the pits. I stayed 

 around camp looking after the horses, thinking that some stranger might come 

 along and get them or bother the women. After dinner my brother came back 

 with a fine eagle. When he brought the bird into camp, there was no place to 

 put it as we did not have a lodge built for the eagles. He tied the bird to our tipi 

 and pulled the 12 tail feathers out. 



I said to him, "We should have a lodge for the eagle as we have no right to do 

 this to the birds. We have plenty of time to make a lodge. I found a beaver dam 

 and we could take that wood." 



We brought the wood and made a lodge in a short time. Then we lived separate 

 from our wives. 



