RELIGION WD CEREM >NIES 123 



Menomini of the Woodlands. This diffusion in historic 

 times, makes ii one of the most suggestive phenomena 

 for students of Indian life, since it affords an indisput- 

 able example of culture diffusion. 



Dancing Associations. There are a number of 

 semi-religious festivals or ceremonies in which a large 

 number of individuals participate and which seem to have 

 been handed on from one tribe to another. The best 

 known example of this is the Omaha or Grass dance 

 which has been reported for the Arapaho, Pawnee, 

 Omaha, Dakota, Crow, Gros Ventre, Assiniboin, and 

 Blackfoot. The various tribes agree in their belief 

 that this dance, and its regalia originated with the 

 Pawnee. The Dakota claim to have obtained it 

 directly from the Pawnee about 1870. The Arapaho 

 and Gros Ventre claim to have learned it from the 

 Dakota. The Gros Ventre taught it to the Blackfoot 

 about 1883. Though these statements of the Indians 

 are not to be taken as absolutely correct, they indicate 

 that this dance is a modern innovation. Recently, 

 the Blackfoot have carried the dance to the Flathead 

 and Kootenai tribes to the west. 



The meetings are held at night in large circular 

 wooden buildings erected for that purpose. Some of 

 the dancers wear large feather bustles, called crow belts, 

 and peculiar roached headdresses of hair. A feast 

 of dog's flesh is served at which many members for- 

 mally give away property to the poor. They even go so 

 far now and then, as to formally put away a wife as 

 the greatest act of self-denial. 



