478 



SAUK 



[b. a. e. 



Sauk, in particular their position with 

 reference to other dialects of the Central 

 Algonquian group from the standpoint of 

 mutual intelligibility. An approximate 

 order of relationship may be tentatively 

 offered. The Sauk is intimately re- 

 lated first to the Fox and then to the 

 Kickapoo. The Shawnee probably comes 

 next. 



Material culture. — The culture of the 

 Sauk was that of the eastern wooded 

 area. They were a canoe people while 

 they were in the country of the Great 

 Lakes, using both the birch-bark canoe 

 and the dugout. They still retain the 

 dugout, and learned the use and con- 

 struction of the bull-boat on coming out 

 upon the plains. They practised agri- 

 culture on an extensive scale; they culti- 

 vated the ground for maize, squashes, 

 beans, and tobacco. Despite their fixed 

 abodes and villages they did not live a 

 sedentary life altogether, for much of the 

 time they devoted to the chase, hunting 

 game and fishing almost the whole year 

 round. They were acquainted with wild 

 rice, and hunted the buffalo. They did not 

 get possession of horses until after the 

 Black Hawk war in 1832, and they did not 

 become very familiar with the horse and 

 the mule until after their arrival in Kan- 

 sas, after the year 1837. Their abode 

 was the bark house in warm weather and 

 the oval flag- reed lodge in winter; the 

 bark house was characteristic of the vil- 

 lage. Every gens had one large bark 

 house wherein were celebrated the festi- 

 vals of the gens. In this lodge hung the 

 sacred bundles of the gens, and here dwelt 

 the priests that watched over them. It 

 is said that some of these lodges were 

 of the length required to accommodate 

 five fires. The ordinary bark dwelling 

 had but a single fire, which was at the 

 center. 



Social organization. — Society was rather 

 complex. In the days when the tribe 

 was much larger there were numerous 

 gentes. There may be as many as 14 

 gentes yet in existence. These are: 

 Trout, Sturgeon, Bass, Great Lynx or 

 Fire Dragon, Sea, Fox, Wolf, Bear, 

 Bear-potato, Elk, Swan, Grouse, Eagle, 

 and Thunder. It seems that at one time 

 there was a more rigid order of rank both 

 socially and politically than at present. 

 For example, chiefs came from the Trout 

 and Sturgeon gentes, and war chiefs from 

 the Fox gens; and there were certain 

 relationships of courtesy between one 

 gens and another, as when one acted the 

 role of servants to another, seen espe- 

 cially on the occasion of a gens ceremony. 

 Marriage was restricted to men and women 

 of different gentes, and was generally at- 

 tended with an exchange of presents be- 

 tween the families of the pair. AVoman 



as a rule was paid formal courtship before 

 marriage. In the case of death, a man 

 might marry the sister of his deceased 

 wife, or a widow might become the wife 

 of the brother of her dead husband. 

 Polygamy was practised, but was not 

 usual; it was a privilege that went with 

 wealth and social prestige. A child fol- 

 lowed the gens of the father, but it fre- 

 quently happened that the mother was 

 given the right to name; in that case the 

 child took a name peculiar to the gens of 

 the mother but was yet in the gens of the 

 father. But for this practice the gens of 

 an individual could generally be known 

 from the nature of the name. The name 

 is intimately connected with the gens; 

 for example, a name meaning ' he that 

 moves on ahead flashing light' refers to 

 lightning, and is a name peculiar to the 

 Thunder gens. Besides the grouping into 

 gentes, the tribe was further divided into 

 two great social groups or phratries: Kish- 

 ko" and Oshkash''. The painting color of 

 the first was white clay, and that of the 

 second was charcoal. A child entered 

 into a group at birth, sometimes the father, 

 sometimes the mother determining which 

 group. The several groups engaged one 

 another in all manner of contests, espe- 

 cially in athletics. The Sauk never de- 

 veloped a soldier society with the same 

 degree of success as did the Foxes, but 

 they did have a buffalo society; it is said 

 that the first was due to contact with the 

 Sioux, and it is reasonable to suppose 

 that the second was due to influence also 

 from the Plains. There were a chief 

 and a council. As stated, the chiefs 

 came from the Trout and Sturgeon gentes, 

 and the council consisted of these, the 

 war-chiefs or heads of families, and all 

 the warriors. Politically the chief was 

 little more than a figurehead, but socially 

 he occupied first place in the tribe. Not 

 infrequently, however, by force of char- 

 acter and by natural astuteness in the 

 management of tribal affairs the chief 

 might exercise virtually autocratic power. 

 Furthermore, his person was held sacred, 

 and for that reason he was given loyal 

 homage. 



Religion. — The religion of the Sauk is 

 fundamentally the belief in what are now 

 commonly known as manitos. The sense 

 of the term is best given by the combined 

 use of the two words "power" and 

 "magic." The world is looked on as 

 inhabited by beings permeated with a 

 certain magic force, not necessarily mali- 

 cious and not necessarily beneficent, the 

 manifestation of which might produce 

 one or the other effect. Objects in na- 

 ture held to be endowed with this force 

 become the recipients of varying degrees 

 of adoration. A child is early taught to 

 get into personal relation with some ma- 



