social ORGANIZATION. 83 



distinct political divisions, the Piegan, Blood, and 

 Blackfoot, with no superior government, yet they feel 

 that they are one people with common interests and 

 since they have a common speech and precisely similar 

 cultures, it is customary to ignore the political units 

 and designate them by the larger term. The Hidatsa, 

 one of the village group, have essentially the same 

 language as the Crow, but have many different traits of 

 culture and while conscious of a relationship, do not 

 recognize any political sympathies. Again, in the 

 Dakota, we have a more complicated scheme. They 

 recognize first seven divisions as " council fires": 

 Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Wahpekute, Sisseton, Yank- 

 ton, Yanktonai, and Teton. These, as indicated by 

 separate fires, were politically independent, but did 

 not make war upon each other. To the whole, they 

 gave the name Dakota, or, those who are our friends. 

 Again, they grouped the first four into a larger whole, 

 the Santee-Dakota (Isanyati), the Yankton and Yank- 

 tonai formed a second group and the Teton a third. 

 However, the culture of the second and third groups is 

 so similar that it is quite admissible to include them 

 under the title Teton-Dakota. All the seven divisions 

 were again subdivided, especially the Teton which had 

 at least eight large practically independent divisions. 



Thus, it is clear, that no hard and fast distinctions 

 can be made between independent and dependent 

 political units, for in some cases the people feel as if one 

 and yet support what seem to be separate governments. 

 This is not by any means peculiar to the Plains. Since 



