FUNCTIONS OF GENTES AND SUBGENTES.
§ 396. In several tribes there seems to have been a division of labor among the gentes and subgentes, that is, each social division of the tribe had its special religious duties.
In the Omaha tribe we find the following: the Elk gens regulated war; it kept the war tent, war pipes, and the bag containing poisons; it invoked the Thunder-being, who was supposed to be the god of war, and it sent out the scouts. The Iñke-sabĕ and Hañga gentes were the leading peace gentes; they regulated the buffalo hunt and the cultivation of the soil. The Hañga gens had the control of the peace pipes, and a member of that gens lighted the pipes on all ceremonial occasions except at the time of the anointing of the sacred pole.[321] The Iñke-sabĕ gens kept the peace pipes, and a member of that gens acted as crier on many occasions, the other crier being a member of the [K]aⁿze or Wind gens. An Ictasanda man usually filled and emptied the pipes; but a Hañga man filled them when the sacred pole was anointed. The ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ keeper of a sacred pipe really kept instead the sacred tobacco pouch and buffalo skull. The Iñke-sabĕ and ┴e-[p]a-it‘ajĭ keepers carried the two pipes around the circle of chiefs. The Black bear people aided the Elk people in the worship of the Thunder-being in the spring of the year.
§ 397. The following division of labor existed in the Ponka tribe: The Wasabe-hit‘ajĭ and Hisada gentes led in the worship of the Thunder-being. The Ȼixida and Nika[p]aɔna gentes led in war. The Wacabe, Makaⁿ, and Nuqe, all buffalo gentes, regulated the buffalo hunt. The Wajaje (Reptile people) with whom used to be the Necta or Owl people, appear to have been servants of the subaquatic powers.
§ 398. In the Kansa tribe we find that the Earth Lodge and Elk gentes consecrated the mystic fireplaces whenever a new village was established; that the Earth Lodge people consecrated the corn, and regulated the buffalo hunt as well as farming; that the Elk people directed the attack on the buffalo herd; that the Ghost people announced all deaths; that the two Hañga gentes led in war and in mourning for the dead; that the Tciju wactage was a peace-making gens; that a member of the Deer gens was the crier for the tribe; that the member of the Lṵ or Thunder-being gens could not take part in the waqpele gaxe. (§ 28) and must remain in the rear of the other warriors on such an occasion; and that the Wind people, who had to pitch their tents in the rear of the other gentes had a ceremony which they performed whenever there was a blizzard (§ 55).
§ 399. In the author’s account of Osage war customs he relates the following incidents: On the first day of preparation for the warpath the Black bear people bring willows and kindle a fire outside the war tent. On the same day some other Hañʞa people deposit branches of dried willow in some place out of sight of the war tent, and the Ȼuqe men (part of the Buffalo-bull gens) bring in those branches. On the next day men of the Night gens (a sort of Black bear people) set the willow branches on fire, and they and the Elder Osage people say prayers. After this there is a struggle to secure pieces of the charcoal. An Elk man and a Kaⁿe man act as criers. On the third day an Osage man brings in the sacred bag for the Hañʞa or Waɔaɔe mourner (the gens of each man is not specified, but both men belong to the right or war side of the tribe), and a Sinʇaʞȼe man brings in a like bag for the mourner belonging to the Tiɔu or peace side of the tribe. On the fourth day a woman of a Buffalo gens on the right or Hañʞa side of the tribe lays down two strips of buffalo hide so that the warriors may take the first step on the warpath. After the warriors start, a Ȼuqe man is taken ahead of them in order to perform some ceremony which has not been recorded.
On the return of the war party the warriors are met outside of the village by an old man of the Kaⁿe or Wind gens. He performs certain ceremonies as he walks around the party (beginning at the north and ending at the east), and then he tells them whether they can enter the village. The clothing of the returning warriors becomes the property of the old Kaⁿe man and his attendant.
The Kaⁿe gens of the Osage tribe is called the I[p]ats‘ĕ, because it devolves on a member of that gens to fill the peace pipes. The corresponding gens of the Kaⁿze tribe is called Ibatc‘ĕ or Hañga-jiñga.