James Owen Dorsey

“ Though crime in the abstract would not tend to create dissatisfaction with a chief, yet if he murdered, without sufficient cause, one whose kindred were numerous, a fight between the two bodies of kindred would result and an immediate separation of his former adherents would ensue; but should the murdered person be without friends, there would be no attempt to avenge the crime, and the people would fear the chief only the more. To preserve his popularity a chief must give away all his property, and he is consequently always the poorest man in the band ”

“ A Biloxi man may not marry his wife's brother's daughter, nor his wife's father's sister, differing in this respect from a Dakota, an Omaha, a Ponka, etc; but he can marry his deceased wife's sister. A Biloxi woman may marry the brother of her deceased husband. Judging from the analogy furnished by the Kansa tribe it was very probably the rule before the advent of the white race that a Biloxi man could not marry a woman of his own clan. ”

“ The husband of the eldest of several sisters has a claim to each of the others as she grows up, and in most cases the man takes such a potential wife unless she form another attachment. A man usually marries his brother's widow, unless she object, and he may adopt the orphans as his own children. Divorce is easily effected, but is rare among the better class of people in the tribe. The unions of such people often last for life ”

“ Among the Omaha both officers and warriors must be taken from the class of "young men," as the chiefs are afraid to act as leaders in war; and among both the Omaha and the Ponka the chiefs, being the civil and religious leaders of the people, can not serve as captains, or even as members, of an ordinary war party, though they may fight when the whole tribe engages in war. Among the Dakota, however, chiefs have led in time of war. ”

“ Social classes are undifferentiated. Any man can win a name and rank in the section, gens, phratry, tribe, or nation by bravery in war or by generosity in the bestowal of presents and the frequent giving of feasts. While there are no slaves among the Siouan tribes, there are several kinds of servants in civil, military, and religious affairs. ”

“ The husband and the father-in-law never look on each other if they can avoid it, nor do they enter the same lodge. In like manner the wife never addresses her father-in-law.
A plurality of wives is required by a good hunter, since in the labors of the chase women are of great service to their husbands. An Indian with one wife can not amass property, as she is constantly occupied in household labors, and has no time for preparing skins for trading. The first wife and the last are generally the favorites, all others being regarded as servants. ”

“ All the choicest parts of meat and the tongues of animals killed in hunting are reserved for the soldiers' lodge, and are furnished by the young men from time to time. A tax is levied on the camp for the tobacco smoked there, which is no small quantity, and the women are obliged to furnish wood and water daily. This lodge corresponds in some degree to the two sacred lodges of the Hañga gens of the Omaha.
Judging from the meager information which we possess concerning the Asiniboin kinship system, the latter closely resembles that of the Dakota tribes, descent being in the male line. ”

“ While among the Omaha and Ponka a chief can not lead in war, there is a different custom among the Dakota. The Sisseton chief Standing Buffalo told Little Crow, the leader of the hostile Santee in the Minnesota outbreak of 1862, that, having commenced hostilities with the whites, he must fight it out without help from him, and that, failing to make himself master of the situation, he should not flee through the country of the Sisseton. ”

“ Marriage among the Hidatsa is usually made formal by the distribution of gifts on the part of the man to the woman's kindred. Afterward presents of equal value are commonly returned by the wife's relations, if they have the means of so doing and are satisfied with the conduct of the husband. Some travelers have represented that the "marriage by purchase" among the Indians is a mere sale of the woman to the highest bidder, whose slave she becomes. ”

“ Murder is generally avenged by the kindred of the deceased, as among the Omaha and Ponka. Goods, horses, etc, may be offered to expiate the crime, when the murderer's friends are rich in these things, and sometimes they are accepted; but sooner or later the kindred of the murdered man will try to avenge him. Everything except loss of life or personal chastisement can be compensated among these Indians. Rape is nearly unknown, not that the crime is considered morally wrong, but the punishment would be death, as the price of the woman would be depreciated and the chances of marriage lessened. ”

“ The state, as existing among the Siouan tribes, may be termed a kinship state, in that the governmental functions are performed by men whose offices are determined by kinship, and in that the rules relating to kinship and reproduction constitute the main body of the recognized law. By this law marriage and the mutual rights and duties of the several members of each body of kindred are regulated. Individuals are held responsible, chiefly to their kindred ”

“ When war is deemed necessary, any chief, soldier, or brave warrior has the privilege of raising and leading a war party, provided he can get followers. The powers of a warrior and civil chief may be united in one person, thus differing from the Omaha and Ponka custom. The leading chief may and often does lead the whole band to war ”

“ The effects of consolidation are conspicuous among the Omaha, Kansa, Osage, and Oto, while segregation has affected the social organization among the Kansa, Ponka, and Teton. There have been instances of emigration from one tribe to another of the same linguistic family; and among the Dakota new gentes have been formed by the adoption into the tribe of foreigners, i.e., those of a different stock. ”

“ Some of the Winnebago say that there is an Omaha gens among the Winnebago of Wisconsin, but James Alexander knew nothing about it. It is very probable that each Winnebago gens was composed of four subgentes; thus, in the tradition of the Winnebago Wolf gens, there is an account of four kinds of wolves, as in the corresponding Iowa tradition.
The Winnebago lodges were always built with the entrances facing the east. When the warriors returned from a fight they circumambulated the lodge four times, sunwise, stopping at the east just before entering. ”

“ Regarding chieftainship among the Dakota, Philander Prescott4 says:
The chieftainship is of modern date, there being no chiefs hefore the whites came. The chiefs have little power. The chief's band is almost always a kin totem which helps to sustain him. The chiefs have no votes in council; there the majority rules and the voice of the chief is not decisive till then. ”

“ The ¢ixida gens and part of the Nikadaɔna gens of the Ponka tribe are considered to be the warriors of the tribe, though members of other gentes have participated in war. In the Kansa tribe two gentes, the Large Hañga and the Small Hañga, form the phratry connected with war, though warriors did not necessarily belong to those gentes alone. In the Osage camping circle all the gentes on the right side are war gentes, but the first and second, reckoning from the van, are the soldiers or policemen ”

“ The Waɔaɔe Ke k'in are the moccasin makers for the tribe. It is said that in the olden days the members of this gens used turtle shells instead of moccasins, with leeches for strings. The makers of the war-standards and war-pipes must belong to the Waɔaɔe ska.
Saucy Chief is the authority for the following: "Should all the Osage wish to dwell very near another tribe, or in case two or three families of us wish to remove to another part of the reservation, we let the [pg 236] others know our desire to live near them. ”

“ If there are no kin, the council of the band can make a chief. Civil chiefs scarcely ever make a war party.
The Dakota woman owns the tipi. If a man has more wives than one, they have separate tipis, or they arrange to occupy different sides of one. Sometimes the young man goes to live with his wife's kindred, but in such matters there is no fixed rule. To purchase a wife was regarded the most honorable form of marriage, though elopement was sometimes resorted to.
THE ASINIBOIN The Asiniboin were originally part of the Wazi-kute gens of the Yanktonai (Ihañktonwanna) Dakota. ”

“ In their lodge all tribal and intertribal business is transacted, and all strangers, both white men and Indians, are domiciled. The young men, women, and children are not allowed to enter the soldiers' lodge during the time that tribal matters are being considered, and, indeed, they are seldom, if ever, [pg 225] seen there. ”

“ The only persons capable of giving the needed information are among those Kwapa who reside on Osage reservation. According to George Redeagle and Buffalo Calf, two full-blood Quapaw, the Maqe-nikaci'ʞa, Upper World people, were identical with the Wakanʇa e'nikaci'ʞa, Thunder-being people, of Vallière. These two men said, also, that there was no single gens known as the Hañʞa, that name belonging to a major division, probably a half-tribe. ”

“ Possession of an article of small value is a right seldom disputed, if the article has been honestly obtained; but the possession of horses being almost the principal object in life of an Indian of the plains, the retention of them is a matter of great uncertainty, if he has not the large force necessary to defend them. ”

“ The privilege of taking care of the children was given to the Tsiɔu wactaʞe and the Panɥka wactaʞe, according to Saucy Chief. When a child (on the Tsiɔu side) is named, a certain old man is required to sing songs outside of the camp, dropping some tobacco from his pipe down on the toes of his left foot as he sings each song. On the first day the old man of the Tsiɔu (wactaʞe?) takes four grains of corn, one grain being black, another red, a third blue, and a fourth white, answering to the four kinds of corn dropped by the four buffalo, as mentioned in the tradition of the Osage. ”

“ We make up prizes for them—a pony, a blanket, strouding, etc—and we ask them to race for them. The fastest horse takes the first prize, and so on. We take along a pipe and some sticks—one stick for each member of the party that is removing. ”

“ FIG. 31.—Sisseton camping circle.
THE IHAÑKTONWAN OR YANKTON The Yankton and Yanktonai speak the Yankton dialect, which has many words in common with the Teton.
In 1878 Walking Elk wrote the names of the Yankton gentes in the following order: 1, Tcan-kute (Ćaɳ kute) , Shoot-in-the-woods; 2, Tcaxu (Ćaġu) , Lights or lungs; 3, Wakmuha-oin (Wakmuha oiɳ) ,Pumpkin-rind-earring; 4, Ihaisdaye, Mouth-greasers; 5, Watceunpa (Waćeuɳpa) , Roasters; 6, Ikmun (Ikmuɳ) , An animal of the cat kind (lynx, panther, or wildcat) ; 7, Oyate-citca (Oyate-ṡiċa) , Bad-nation ”

“ The members of the four gentes of soldiers or policemen meet in council and decide on the time for departure. They consult the Tsiɔu wactaʞe and Hañʞa (Panɥka wactaʞe?) who attend the council. The crier is generally a man of either the Ṵpqan or Kanse gens, but sometimes a Min k'in man acts. ”

“ Waɔa'ɔe Wanŭn', Elder Osage, composed of six of the seven Osage fireplaces, as follows: a, Waɔa'ɔe ska', White Osage; b, Ke k'in', Turtle-carriers; c, Wake'¢e ste'tse, Tall-flags (?) , Ehnan' min'tse tŭn', They-alone-have-bows, or Minke'¢e ste'tse, Tall-flags; d, Ta ¢a'xü, Deer-lights, or Ta i'niɥk'ăcin'a, Deer people; e, Hu i'niqk`ăcin'a, Fish people; f, Nan'panta, a deer gens, called by some Ke ʞa'tsü, Turtle-with-a-serrated-crest-along-the-shell (probably a water monster, as there is no such species of turtle) . ”

“ Te ni'kaci'ʞa, Buffalo people, or Hañ'ʞa ji'ʞa, Small Hañʞa; An'pan e'nikaci'ʞa, Elk people; Qid¢a' e'nikaci'ʞa, Eagle people; Tuqe'-nikaci'ʞa, Reddish-yellow Buffalo people; and Cañʞe'-nikaci'ʞa, Dog (or Wolf?) people. Mrs Stafford knew that five gentes were not on the Hañʞa side, three of them, Hu i ́'nikaci'ʞa, Fish people, Ni'kia'ta (meaning unknown) , and Ke-ni'kaci'ʞa, Turtle people, being on the same side; Mantu' e'nikaci'ʞa, Lion people; and Ti'ju (answering to the Osage Tsiɔu, the Kansa Tciju, and the Ponka Tcinju) , meaning not obtained, which last is extinct. ”

“ Bird people; c, ʇe-da it`ajĭ, Touch-no-buffalo-head; Eagle people; d, ʞe-`in, Carry-a-turtle-on-the-back; Turtle people. 5, ʞanze, Wind people.
Ictasanda gentes—6, Man¢iñka-gaxe, Earth-lodge-makers; coyote and wolf people. 7, ʇe-sĭnde, Buffalo-tail; a Buffalo-calf people. 8, ʇa-da, Deer-head; Deer people. 9, Iñg¢e-jide, Red dung; a Buffalo-calf gens. [pg 227] 10, Icta-sanda, meaning uncertain ("gray eyes"?) , said to refer to the effect of lightning on the eyes. This last gens consists of Thunder and Reptile people. ”

“ But there is another grade of men; the four leaders of the soldier gentes tell the captain to call certain men wa'paʞ¢a'ɔi utsin', and they are expected to punish any a'kiʇa who fail to do their duty. Supposing Min k'in waʇayiñʞa was selected, the crier would say:
"Ha+! ”