314 
So Assiniboine society recognized, besides a military society of noted 
warriors, four classes of men more or loss distinguished from tlie rank 
and file, viz., two orders of medicine-men, the owners of jiainted 
tents, and the founders or leaders of various dancing societies. 
The medicine-men, however, and the owners of painted tents, 
enjoyed little prestige unless they distinguished themselves also in 
warfare. It was the military society, comprising all the bravest and 
most active men between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, that 
controlled every large camp. Nominally the leader of the society 
received his orders from the dominant chief, but since it was only 
through the military society that the chief could enforce his wishes, 
he dared not oi:)]iose its expressed opinion. The society ]ioliced tlie 
camp and I'egulated the buffalo hunt,^ received delegations from 
otlier tribes, and authorized raids for scalps and horses. On si)ecial 
occasions its memliers dressed in full battle array, danced to the 
accompaniment of drums and singing, and recounted their individual 
exploits, with the avowed pur}>ose of impressing the laity with their 
strength and of stimulating the popular zeal for warfare. 
ddie number of dancing societies varied at different periods as old 
ones ceased to ('xist and new ones arose to take their place. Their 
purpose was mainly social, although fellow members aided one another 
in daily life. In one alone was the religious aspect prominent, in the 
‘‘ horse-dance,”- whose members annually set up an altar inside an 
enlarged tipi and offered incense and tobacco smoke to the sun, tlie 
thunder, and the earth. Nearly all dancing societies restricted their 
membership to men, but even in 1820 women had a special order of 
their own. Candidates paid an initiation fee of varying amounts, 
and (in the second half of the nineteenth century at least) the socie- 
ties held annual dances when the bands united in early summer for 
the buffalo-hunt and the sun-dance. 
Some recent events on the Stoney reserve at Morley illustrate 
rather clearly how such dancing societies might arise. An Indian 
named C'ough (’hild. or ('row C'hild, hafl a vision in which the Great 
Spirit appeared to him and said “ You must sleep on a mountain four 
successive nights. The thunder will clap over your head, and at 
each clap you will daub white paint on your cheek. Afterwards you 
1 For tlu’Pt’ (lutu's See part I. p. 128. 
^Tliis society may not be older than the middle of the nineteenth century. 
