Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 489 



It is evident that the Mandan have influenced the Hidatsa more than 

 the Hidatsa have influenced the Mandan. The oldest Hidatsa sites 

 have distinctive types and frequencies of pottery that are not charac- 

 teristic of the Mandan, and these had all dropped out by historic 

 times with the adoption of the more popular Mandan types. Their 

 age-grade military society system and women's age-grade societies 

 were, in many instances, borrowed from the Mandan, even within the 

 memory of the grandparents of native informants living in 1933. A 

 common clan system was developing from two traditions, a 13-clan 

 system of the Hidatsa-proper and Awaxawi, which was shared by the 

 Crow, and a 7- or 8-clan system characteristic of the Awatixa. Their 

 clan systems, through close contacts with the Mandan, were equated 

 to extend cooperative ties across tribal lines. 



It can be said that the Hidatsa enjoyed little of the cultural stability 

 of the Mandan after their final arrival from the east. They had 

 shifted from a marginal agricultural region to one possessing a highly 

 developed agricultural system of long standing. Some had even 

 come as marginal hunters and gatherers from the northeastern edge 

 of the Great Plains and had undergone significant internal cultural 

 changes brought about by their close association with Village Indians 

 living near Heart River on the Missouri. They adopted social dances 

 from the Sioux and passed them on to the Crow. They borrowed many 

 curing rites from the Assiniboin which enriched their ceremonial 

 life. Their ancient way of life was being rapidly enriched by their 

 many new contacts on the Missouri when these processes were abruptly 

 terminated with the extermination of the buffaloes, the conquest of 

 their enemies by the U.S. Army, and their forced removal to the Fort 

 Berthold Reservation. 



