Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 487 



for mutual defense against their common enemies. These mutual 

 defense measures were taken just prior to A.D. 1800 as a means of 

 protection against their more numerous nomadic neighbors. 



By 1837-38, following another severe smallpox epidemic that nearly 

 exterminated the Mandan and Hidatsa, the Arikara appeared on the 

 Knife River, having been nomadic hunters in the Western Plains after 

 their gardens had failed from drought a few years earlier. There 

 they appropriated the Nuitadi Mandan village, and joined with the 

 Mandan-Hidatsa survivors in a mutal defense pact against the Sioux 

 and other nomadic neighbors. In 1845, Fishhook Village was built 

 by the Hidatsa and Nuitadi Mandans. The other Mandans re- 

 mained near the Arikara until after 1860 when they, too, came to 

 Fishhook Village. Ten years later, most of the survivors of Hidatsa 

 Village on the Knife River, under the leadership of Bobtail Bull and 

 Crow-Flies-High, moved to the mouth of the Yellowstone where they 

 lived until forced to return to the Fort Berthold Reservation. They 

 established a settlement at Shell Village apart from the other Hidatsa. 



To understand cultural differences and similarities among the vari- 

 ous agricultural communities, one must take into account their sepa- 

 rate histories. Hidatsa family, kinship, and clan loyalties have been 

 strong while tribal loyalties have been weak. This has produced a 

 system whereby some Hidatsa-proper bands have felt stronger loyal- 

 ties to some River Crow bands than to their nearest neighbors, the 

 Awatixa. Likewise, the Awaxawi have occasionally had closer ties 

 with the Awigaxa Mandan or the earth lodge Cheyenne than with 

 the Hidatsa-proper or the Awatixa. The Awatixa have had closer 

 ties with the Mandan through cultural exchange than with the more 

 nomadic Hidatsa-proper and, in the past, expressed little concern 

 when many of the latter talked of rejoining the River Crow. 



From what we have been able to determine, the Mandan had been 

 more successful than the other groups in developing a tribal system. 

 The Awigaxa Mandan, nevertheless, retained closer cultural ties with 

 certain northern Arikara groups until after 1800. The Arikara, too, 

 had their fraction group which was not completely integrated until 

 after 1820. 



At the time the first Whites reached the Missouri River during 

 the 18th century, the Village Indians had a common basic culture 

 which was of long standing in the river vaUeys of the Plains and had 

 spread eastward to the tributaries of the Red River of the North. 

 It was founded on common agricultural plants, tools, and technology. 

 The summer villages were composed of semipermanent earth-cov- 

 ered lodges sufficiently large to shelter an extended family. Minor 

 differences in design of lodges had disappeared. The winter season 

 was normally spent in the lower wooded valleys where the popula- 



