1 I 1 INDIAN- 01 l id- PLAINS 



upon to initiate and authorize every important under- 

 taking. The most sacred object in this bundle is an ear 

 of corn, spoken of as 'Mother," and symbolizing the 

 lite of man. Similar ears are found in all the important 



bundles of the Paw nee and one such ear was carried by a 

 war party for use in the observances of the warpath. 

 From all this we see that the emphasis of Pawnee 

 thought and religious feeling is placed upon cultivated 

 plants in contrast to the more typical Plain- tribe- who 

 make no attempts at agriculture, but who put the chief 

 stress upon buffalo ceremonies. The tendency to sur- 

 round the growing of maize with elaborate ceremonies is 

 characteristic of the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest 

 and also of such tribes east of the Mississippi as made a 

 specialty of agriculture. 



In the Museum collections are a few important 

 bundles, a medicine-pipe, and a sun dance bundle 

 (natoas) from. the Blackfoot, the latter a very sacred 

 thing; an Arapaho bundle; the sacred image used 

 in the Crow sun dance ; an Osage war bundle ; a series < A 

 tribal bundles from the Pawnee, etc. To them the 

 reader is referred for further details. 



Tribal Ceremonies. In addition to the above 

 ceremonial practices, there are a number of procedures 

 deserving special mention. Most tribes had a series of 

 ceremonies for calling the buffalo and inducing them to 

 enter the pound or to permit themselves to be easily 

 taken by the hunters. These have not been satis- 

 factorily investigated but seem to have varied a great 

 deal probably because this function was usually dele- 



