410 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



SUNSET WOLF 



These Sunset rites, which also included ceremonial participation of 

 certain females possessing rights in the Wolf Woman bundles, were 

 considered to be independent of the Sunrise Wolf rites in spite of the 

 fact that bundle owners of both rites had important ceremonial duties 

 whenever this ceremony was performed. Each of the ceremonies, 

 the Sunrise Wolf, the Sunset Wolf, and the Wolf Woman, has a sep- 

 arate origin myth. Although wolves are represented in many of the 

 origin myths relating to very early times, the Hidatsa village groups 

 do not consider the Sunset Wolf rites in their later forms to be very 

 old. This ceremony is considered more recent than the Sunrise 

 rites since it traditionally was founded after the Hidatsa-proper had 

 moved from the Heart River where the Sunrise Wolf rites were in- 

 stituted. Since the Hidatsa-proper think of the Knife River villages 

 as quite late in tribal history and the Cheyenne as late arrivals on 

 the Plains, they consider the ceremony one of the last major ceremonies 

 to be founded by the gods. 



Bears Arm and Joe Ward provided most of the data on this cere- 

 mony. The origin myth, summarized by the writer to include the 

 principal points stressed by both informants, was as follows: 



A young man, later to be named Hungry Wolf, was out eagle trapping with his 

 wife to the west. He had his pit which he would go into when the winds were 

 right; at other times he would hunt mountain sheep and other game. When he 

 had caught four eagles and they had all the meat the dogs could bring back, he 

 notified his wife that he would go out for fresh meat while she packed the things. 

 When he returned his wife and the dogs were gone. He found the tracks of seven 

 men who had taken his wife and dogs away. At last, near the headwaters of 

 Knife River, he saw the enemy camp of many lodges. 



When night came he found one path leading to a waterhole where the Cheyenne 

 women were accustomed to get their water. He hid near the path and watched 

 for his wife, teUing her that he would take her away during the night. Instead 

 of going away with him, she notified the Cheyenne who captured him. Some of 

 these enemies struck coups on him and one man cut a small piece of scalp from 

 Hungry Wolf's head. 



They decided to kill him so they brought two large ash poles and drove them 

 into the ground. Instead of killing him outright, they decided to torture him 

 first. They ran knives through his ankles between the bone and large cord and 

 did the same with his wrists. They brought rawhide ropes and fastened them 

 through the holes in the legs and arms. They tied him to the posts so that he 

 hung there, and they brought wood for a fire. The women danced around him, 

 among them Hungry Wolf's wife. 



At last the Cheyenne broke camp, leaving him fastened to the posts. Magpies, 

 ravens, foxes, and coyotes came to the campgrounds to eat the scraps thrown out. 

 He hung there 3 days unable to free himself. On the fourth day the raven flew 

 back toward the "spot where the sun sets." He told the Chief of the Wolves 

 that a young man was being tortured in the abandoned camp. 



