488 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



tion depended primarily on the animals they hunted. The eagle- 

 trapping techniques had become standardized. Their material 

 culture was exceedingly similar throughout several hundred miles of 

 Village Indian occupation along the Missouri River and in such areas 

 as the lower Sheyenne River to the east. 



However, as one delves deeper into the archeology of the area, 

 and comes to acquire greater understanding of these cultures through 

 careful examination and with the aid of native informants familiar 

 with their ancient culture, numerous differences come to Ught. Cat- 

 linite was uncommon in the village sites of the rectangular lodge 

 tradition and in later Mandan sites, but it was common in sites of 

 the Chouteau and Painted Woods tradition. On analysis of Mandan 

 traditions and values, one learns that there was a strong prejudice 

 against the use of redstone pipes for ceremonial functions which was 

 not shared by the Arikara and Hidatsa. The Mandan preferred 

 the large, carved, wooden pipe as did the Awatixa who had lived 

 longest on the Missouri River near them. Shell beads were popular 

 in the Missouri VaUey tradition and unimportant in the Chouteau 

 tradition. 



The open circle or plaza of the Mandan was of long standing with 

 them and their image of the community was built around this com- 

 plex. Recent fieldwork in South Dakota and carbon-14 dates for 

 that area indicate that this ceremonial complex was developed before 

 the invasion of the region by Chouteau tradition peoples and that it 

 was not adopted by the Arikara until nearly protohistoric times. 

 Clearly indetifiable ceremonial lodge complexes, as yet unreported for 

 the Arikara, antedate their first appearance in South Dakota by 

 several centuries. 



Even as late as 1933, Mandan informants were reluctant to dis- 

 cuss knowledge of this sacred complex. Hidatsa informants had no 

 knowledge of sacred areas in their villages or separate ceremonial 

 lodges, and archeology confirms this. Like the Mandan, the Awa- 

 tixa believed that each village ought to have an outstanding sacred 

 bundle owner stationed at each of the four directions within the vil- 

 lage to sound alarms sent by their bundles whenever danger was at 

 hand and to assist the head chiefs. This beUef and practice was not 

 shared by the other Hidatsa groups. It was the type of village 

 organization that was employed when Fishhook village was built 

 in 1845. There is neither traditional nor archeological evidence 

 that the Hidatsa groups ever adopted the earth-covered ceremonial 

 lodge. 



We also find that the Awatixa, like the Mandan, commonly trans- 

 mitted property of a sacred nature through the matrilineal line 

 rather than from father to son as was the practice among other 

 Hidatsa groups. 



