Hidatsa people

“ Matthews [256] found that the object of the greatest reverence among the Hidatsa was, perhaps, the Itsika-mahidiś, the First Made, or First in Existence. They assert that he made all things, the stars, sun, the earth, the first representatives of each species of animals and plants, but that no one made him. He also, they say, instructed the forefathers of the tribes in all the ceremonies and mysteries now known to them. They sometimes designate him as Itaka-te-taś, or Old Man Immortal.
ANIMISM. ”

“ The same epidemic reduced the Hidatsas to about 500 persons. The remnants of the two tribes united and in 1845 removed up the Missouri and built a village at Like-a-fishhook bend close to the trading post of Fort Berthold. They were joined by the Arikaras in 1862. Neighboring lands were set apart as a reservation for them; and there the three tribes, now settled on allotments, still dwell.
The Mandans and Hidatsas have much intermarried. By custom children speak usually the language of their mother, but understand perfectly the dialect of either tribe. ”

“ When the people of Hindostan, in the last century, came under the British power, they were regarded as a debased and alien race. Their complexion reminded their conquerors of Africa. Their divinities were hideous monsters. Their social system was anti-human and detestable. Suttee, thuggee. Juggernaut, all sorts of cruel and shocking abominations, seemed to characterize and degrade them. The proudest Indian prince was, in the sight and ordinary speech of the rawest white subaltern, only a "nigger." ”

“ Will you become Napoleon's slaves? or will you as patriots defend your religion and your rights?" "We will defend them!" shouted the people. "Viva Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, muera el mal gobierno, mueran los gachupines!" [55] "Live, then, and follow your cura, who has ever watched over your welfare," was Hidalgo's answer. The Grito de Dolores has gone forth! The poor and ignorant and down-trodden of this little Indian town proclaim the future independence of a great nation! ”

“ Moscow, Tartary, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey—what neighbours!—the Hetmans, wars and revolutions—at length the fall of Seech, the last stand of Ukrainian freedom—the whole Ukrainian history was put into song by the Kobzars, the rhapsodists, and if the Ukraine has lost her written history it is still preserved in her historical songs.
The period of bondage and feudalism began in 1771. The Cossacks had disappeared, but 15their place was taken by the avengers of the people’s sorrows—Robbers, Haidomaki, Oprishki—the Ukrainian Robin Hoods—and their deeds also are recorded in their songs. ”

“ Maxi ́diwiac, or Buffalobird-woman, is a daughter of Small Ankle, a leader of the Hidatsas in the trying time of the tribe’s removal to what is now Fort Berthold reservation. She was born on one of the villages at Knife River two years after the “smallpox year,” or about 1839. She is a conservative and sighs for the good old times, yet is aware that the younger generation of Indians must adopt civilized ways. Ignorant of English, she has a quick intelligence and a memory that is marvelous. To her patience and loyal interest is chiefly due whatever of value is in this thesis. ”

“ One after the other he presents the idealists of the ghetto to the reader. There is, first of all, Jedidiah, the common type of the Maskil, working zealously for culture, spreading truth and light in all the circles he can reach, dreaming of a Judaism, just, enlightened, exalted. Then there are the ardent young apostles, like that noble friend of Joseph, Gideon, most enlightened and most tolerant of Maskilim. In the measure in which Gideon detests fanaticism, he loves the people. He loves the masses with the heart of a patriot and the soul of a prophet. ”

“ Truly an evil trade, and few taking to it ever reach old age; the pitiless cold, or hunger and hardships of grimmest kind decimating the band, while the more hardy ones fall a prey to the wild beasts, if not brought to the gallows instead. And whatever their end may be, their people are anxious that their memory should be wiped out--anxious it should be forgotten that one of theirs took to the mountains. A hajdamak while he lives is held in some respect, inasmuch as he has gained the liberty sighed for by others--the dead man is nowhere. ”

“ All is as bad as it can be; the civilized men are the more to blame, however, for they should know better.
Hidalgo was a far more self-sacrificing, honorable, and humane man than the average military leader. But he was not hypocrite or fool enough to pretend that it was worse to take a dead man's goods than a living man's life. But the killing in war is done for the cause. ”

“ And no man shall ever say my daughter married an unworthy one."
The fame of our tribe spread rapidly. The tale of Ghitza's feat spread among all the villages and our tribe was respected everywhere. People no longer insulted us, and many another of our tribe now danced on Sundays at the inn—yea, our girls and our boys danced with the other people of the villages. Our trade doubled and tripled. We bartered more horses in a month than we had at other times in a year. Ghitza's word was law everywhere. ”

“ To the disgrace of human nature, this practice has prevailed during a long succession of ages in Hindoostan; and, what is incomprehensible, among a people distinguished for their mild and inoffensive manners; but every feeling heart must rejoice that, with equal wisdom and humanity, it has been expressly prohibited in all the territories over which the authority of the British government extends ”

“ We will take it for granted that the cause in which he engaged was just, that the impulses prompting to it were noble; for it is not necessary to say at this day that it is right to overthrow tyranny, to achieve liberty, to deliver one's country, or that his memory should be held in holy repute who lays down his life for these things.
Before embarking in his high enterprise, Hidalgo was an humble priest, of more than ordinary gentleness of nature, and refinement of intellect and culture. Some have sought to besmear his fair fame with charges of conduct not consistent with strict morality ”

“ The Hidatsa always lay their dead upon scaffolds. As the Lord of Life is displeased when they quarrel and kill one another, those who do so are buried in the earth, that they may be no longer seen. In this case a buffalo head is laid on the grave, that the herds of buffalo may not keep away, for, if they were to smell the wicked, they might remove and never return. The good are laid upon scaffolds, that they may be seen by the Lord of Life. [271]
The Crows have no fear of death, but they have a horror of being buried in the ground. ”

“ Hidalgo's followers, united with the populace of the city, once launched against their oppressors, moved onward with irresistible force. At the sight of blood, their own blood, that of their comrades and of their enemies, they became demons infuriate. Bustamante relates that an Indian seized a bomb thrown at him and vainly strove to tear out the fuse with his teeth. The bomb exploded, blowing him to pieces. "It matters not” cried his comrades, "there are others behind."
Such were the first men who shed their blood in the cause of independence. ”

“ What's the difference?”
“They are killing all the educated and law-abiding people in Russia,” declared Major Gaddis, severely.
“All the rich people, you mean,” said Jimmie. “They make the rich obey their laws; they give them a chance, the same as everybody else, then if they don't obey they kill them—just as many as they have to kill to make them obey. An' don't you do the same with the poor people? Ain't I seen you do it, every time there was a strike? ”

“ The true Hidalgo spirit, which wraps itself up in an antique garb and shrugs its shoulders at the advance of other nations, still rules over the realm of Ferdinand and Isabella, while its high-roads swarm with gypsies and banditti, as tokens of decaying power. ”

“ More difficult to remain if one engaged in socio-political propaganda. The Labor Government was expelling people on as slight pretexts as had the Tories before. My comrades thought it extraordinary that I should have been granted a visa, and expressed doubt that I would be allowed to remain long if I became politically active. The anti-alien laws had almost destroyed the Yiddish anarchist movement, as everyone active in the East End feared expulsion at any time. The disruption in radical ranks brought about by the nefarious methods of Moscow served to strengthen the hands of reaction. ”

“ Children of poor families suffered for clothing, but rarely for food, for a family having meat or corn always shared with any who were hungry. If a child’s parents died, relatives or friends cared for him.
My mother sighs for the good old times. “Children were then in every lodge,” she says, “and there were many old men in the tribe. Now that we live in cabins and eat white men’s foods, the children and old men die; and our tribe dies!”
But this is hardly true of the Christian families.
[27]
III
THE GODS I have said we Hidatsas believed that an earth lodge was alive ”

“ While Hiawatha was thus living in domestic life quietly among the people of the hills, and administering their simple government with wisdom, they became alarmed by the sudden news of the approach of a furious and powerful enemy from north of the great lakes. As the enemy advanced, they made an indiscriminate slaughter of men, women and children. The people fled from their villages a short time before them, and there was no heart in the people to make a stand against such powerful and ruthless invaders. ”

“ The rôle played by the counter-revolutionary Yudeniches, he added, was too obvious to need special emphasis. That is why he had not considered it necessary even to mention them, nor the intelligentsia, which had been talking revolution for over fifty years and then was the first to stab it in the back with sabotage and conspiracies. But all these were contributory factors, not the main cause. The roots were inherent in Russia's brutal and uncivilized masses, he said. They have no cultural traditions, no social values, no respect for human rights and life. ”

“ Besides, all the people of Hindostan know, that, with the exception of watches, which, for want of pawn-brokers, and accomplices skilled in the melting of metals, are of no use to the predatory tribe, Europeans never carry about with them any thing valuable. No gentleman 402ever has money about him; though his servants sometimes have, in their waists, a few rupees, intended for such disbursements as cannot be delayed without inconvenience. ”

“ Even as matters now stand, they are really safer in perilous situations and emergencies than men; and might be still more so, if they trusted themselves more confidingly to the chivalry of manhood. In all her wanderings about Rome, Hilda had gone and returned as securely as she had been accustomed to tread the familiar street of her New England village, where every face wore a look of recognition. With respect to whatever was evil, foul, and ugly, in this populous and corrupt city, she trod as if invisible, and not only so, but blind. ”

“ The heaviest blow sustained by the revolutionists was that dealt by the church and inquisition. The awful denouncement of the leaders as heretics, their terrible punishment of greater excommunication, and the dread of the same appalling fate falling on them, working upon an ignorant and superstitious people, decided for a time the vacillating and deterred the disaffected. Hidalgo fully recognized that he had to fight with weapons other than those used on the battle-field ”

“ Human nature isn't half as selfish and cowardly as men like you make out. You'll burn your fingers if you [172] try to put a tag on these peasants and shop-assistants and clerks, over here. They're not afraid to die. The modern man is all right, but you fellows at the top don't give him half a chance. A whole race of peasants can be burned out and mutilated, and it doesn't cause a flutter in the pulse-beat of one of you American traders."
"You're a damn poor American," said the banker bluntly.
"You're the poor American," replied Hilda. ”

“ Very little can be said of the government of the Haidahs in distinction from that of the other nations of the Northwest Coast. Among nearly all of them rank is nominally hereditary, for the most part by the female line, but really depends to a great extent on wealth and ability in war. Females often possess the right of chieftainship. In early intercourse with whites the chief traded for the whole tribe, subject, however, to the approval of the several families, each of which seemed to form a kind of subordinate government by itself. ”

“ Here in this worst of the evils, this horror of war, men were manifesting a humanity, a consideration, at a higher level than she felt she had ever shown it in happy surroundings in a peaceful land. Hilda won the sense, which was to be of abiding good to her, that at last she had justified her existence. She, too, was now helping to continue that great tradition of human kindness which had made this world a more decent place to live in. No one could any longer say she was only a poor artist in an age of big things. ”

“ The few captives who were retained after a fight were adopted into the tribe of the captors or else were allowed to live with them and shift for themselves—a practice very different from that of the Haidas.
Another feature of the Haidas' life which showed comparative progress was the social distinctions which existed among them. One of the ways in which individuals maintained their social position was by giving away quantities of goods of all kinds at the potlatches which they organized. A man sometimes went so far as to strip himself of nearly every possession except his house. ”