BULL. 30] 



WAR AND WAR DISCIPLINE 



915 



Among some tribes there was a particular 

 village or clan that had the right to shel- 

 ter or protect a fugitive; among others 

 the chief's tent afforded asylum, or if 

 food was offered and taken the captive 

 v\'as spared; others subjected captives to 

 ordeals(q. v. ) which if thecaptivesurvived 

 he was saved. In most cases the survivors 

 were finally adopted by their captors. Ex- 

 change of captives between tribes was of 

 rare occurrence. Some tribes had a war 

 chief whose duties pertained exclusively 

 to war. When an attack, either offen- 

 sive or defensive, was made which in- 

 •volved the entire tribe, the war chief led 

 the warriors. War parties, however, 

 were composed wholly of volunteers, and 

 were organized solely fur aggressive war- 

 fare. They varied in size from half a 

 dozen men to a hundred or more. Large 

 parties which intended going a consider- 

 able distance from home were attended 

 by hunters, whose duty it was to keep the 

 warriors supplied with game. Occasion- 

 ally a few women were of the party: they 

 were not under orders, but acted as 

 servers, and when the spoils were divided 

 they were given a share. The initiation 

 and organization of a war party for offen- 

 sive warfare differed among the tribes, as 

 did the religious rites which preceded its 

 departure. Among the Pueblos these 

 rites were in charge of a war priesthood; 

 in all tribes the rites were more or less 

 directly under the men to whom were 

 confided the keeping of rituals and the 

 direction of ceremonies related to war. 

 In general, a man had to prepare for the 

 office of leader by fasting and continence, 

 and as upon him rested the responsibility 

 of the failure or success of the party, he 

 must be careful to observe all the rites 

 by which he could personally appeal to 

 the supernatural. He assigned the men to 

 their various duties, and to him each man 

 had to render implicit obedience: any re- 

 fusal to carry out the ordei'^ of the leader 

 was punished t)y flogging. He appointed 

 two lieutenants, or " little leaders," who, 

 in case of his death, should act in his 

 place. Frequently, however, a war party 

 had two leaders, equal in authority. In 

 battle the warriors were not required 

 to keep close together except when 

 making a charge, but while each man 

 fought more or less independently, friend 

 stood by friend to death, and only under 

 great stress was the body of a companion 

 left to the knife of the victor. Frequently 

 the severest fighting took place about the 

 body of a fallen comrade. The leader 

 exercised no control over the men in 

 regard to taking honors, such as touching, 

 striking, or scalping an enemy: each man 

 was free to take all the honors he could, 

 but only the leader had the right to divide 



the spoils, and no one could question his 

 apportionment. Not infrequently a war 

 party carried some article sacred to the 

 band, and rites connected with it had to 

 be observed. In such cases the responsi- 

 bility of the outcome of the expedition 

 was believed to rest with this emblem. 

 The warrior societies of several of the 

 Plains tribes possessed a particular object 

 similar in use to the ceremonial lance of 

 the Kiowa. This was attached by an 

 elk-skin sash to the neck of the leader, 

 who under certain circumstances took his 

 place in front of his line of warriors, and 

 thrusting the lance into the ground 

 through a hole in the end of the sash, 

 there fought or awaited death : he could not 

 retreat unless one of his own party should 

 pull up the lance to which he was in honor 

 fixed (Mooney). Dreams (q. v.) some- 

 times influenced the acts of a war party. 

 Instances have been known where, be- 

 cause of a dream, the entire party has 

 disbanded and returned home. There 

 were grades or ranks among warriors, 

 each having its peculiar insignia, and all 

 rank was gained by personal achievement. 

 In defensive warfare the warriors sprang 

 to the alarm and aimed to engage the 

 enemy beyond the limits of the village, 

 while the women hastily threw up breast- 

 works or dug pits in which to thrust the 

 children out of reach of flying arrows. 

 Women fought only at close range, using 

 their knives or any available objects as 

 weapons; but in rare cases women went 

 to war and fought on equal terms with 

 the men of the party. Prisoners, partic- 

 ularly it women or children, were fre- 

 quently adopted, otherwise they were 

 killed. The club, knife, spear, javelin, 

 and bow and arrows w^ere the Indian's 

 principal weapons; the thro wing-stick 

 had only a limited range. Poisoned 

 arrows are reported as having been 

 used by a number of the tribes, and 

 while the poison itself was sometimes 

 effective, the main reliance was on the 

 theurgical potency of the substances used. 

 Consult Chamberlain in Jour. Am. 

 Folk-lore, xx, 1-16, 1907; Matthews, 

 Hidatsa, 1877; Curtis, N. Am. Ind., i-v, 

 1907-1909; Dorsey in 3d and 15th Reps. 

 B. A. E. ; Mooney, Winship, and Hoff- 

 man in 14th Rep.; Moonev in 17th Rep.; 

 Mindeleff in 19th Rep.; Murdoch in 9th 

 Rep.; Powell in 1st Rep.; McGeein Am. 

 Anthr., xi, 1898; Dixon in Bull. Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., xvii, pt. 3, 1905; Grin- 

 nell, (1) Pawnee Hero Stories, 1889; (2) 

 Blackfoot Lodge Tales, 1892; (3) in Am. 

 Anthr., xii, no. 2, 1910; Holm, Descr. 

 New Sweden, 1834; Sapir in Am. Anthr., 

 IX, no. 2, 1907. See also Captives, Coup, 

 Fortifications, Military societies, Ordeals, 

 Scalping, Slavery. (a. c. f. ) 



