HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



established priesthood, either hereditary or otherwise, and that ritual 

 usually forms a part of this system. Evidences of such institutions 

 have been found, to some extent, among the Mandan. Aged members 

 of that tribe related to the writer numerous ceremonial customs, 

 among which was the "cleansing of the corn" by the "corn priest". 

 This was done in the spring of the year in order that there might be 

 an abundant harvest. Songs of the corn priest, as well as other 

 ceremonial songs by those who had the hereditary right to sing them, 

 were phonographically recorded. Extended rituals, with their songs, 

 have been obtained among various tribes by ethnologists, but the 

 scope of the present paper will be limited to data recorded by the 

 writer among the Teton Sioux on the Standing Rock reservation in 

 North Dakota and South Dakota. 



The only religious gathering of the Teton Sioux was the annual 

 Sun dance. The ceremony of the Sun dance was marked by definite- 

 ness and formality, but available information does not indicate the 

 survival of a ritual. A leader of the ceremony was elected every year. 

 The requirements for this office were exacting and the men who filled 

 it were treated with great respect. Songs were sung by the leader 

 during certain portions of the ceremony, and there were acts which 

 were performed only by him ; but his office appears to have terminated 

 with the ending of the ceremony. Thereafter he was referred to, not 

 as a "priest", but as "one who had been leader in the Sun dance." 

 The chief requisite of the man elected to this office was that he had 

 had a dream, usually a dream of the sun. Thus Red Bird (one of the 

 writer's informants) said that he fell unconscious during a Sun dance, 

 and saw a man's face in the sun. The face was painted. It was said 

 that this vision was sufficient to entitle him to act as leader in the 

 Sun dance after he had received the proper instructions concerning 

 the duties of that office. 



Early missionaries among the Sioux have stated that they were 

 polytheists. Perhaps in this, as in many religious distinctions among 

 white people, the principal difficulty lies in the effort to express in 

 words that which is too large to be defined in this manner. The old 

 men among the Teton Sioux say that their people have always 

 believed in Wakan'tanka. When questioned as to their understand- 

 ing of the word, an old man, known as a "heathen Indian", said to 

 the writer: "It is hard to explain what we believe about this. It is the 

 general belief of the Indians that after a man dies his spirit is some- 

 where on the earth or in the sky; we do not know exactly where, but 

 we believe that his spirit still lives. . . . So it is with Wakan'tanka. 

 We believe that he is everywhere, yet he is to us as the spirits of our 



[68] 



