The notes given under this heading are divided into (1) cult societies; (2) daily life and habits; (3) games.
SECTION 1.
CULT SOCIETIES.
Voluntary associations, to be distinguished from those of an exclusively religious character, have flourished among most Indian tribes and are still found among those least affected by contact with civilization. Maj. Powell, the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, has named them cult societies. Their members are designated by special paintings and marks entirely distinct from those relating to their clans or gentes and their personal names. Travelers have frequently been confused by the diversity of such designations.
The translated names of some of these societies found among the Sioux are “Brave Night Hearts,” “Owl Feathers,” and “Wolves and Foxes.” They control tribes in internal affairs and strongly influence their policy in external relations, and may be regarded as the substitute both for regular soldiery and for police. It is necessary that a young man proposing to be a warrior should be initiated into some one of these societies. But in distinguishing them from the purely shamanistic orders it must not be understood that their ceremonies and ties are independent of the cult of religion, or that they disregard it, for this among Indians would be impossible.
The following account of these societies among the Blackfeet or Satsika and their pictorial or objective devices is condensed from Maximilian of Wied’s Travels (e):
The bands, unions, or associations are found among the Blackfeet as well as all the other American tribes. They have a certain name, fixed rules and laws, as well as their peculiar songs and dances, and serve in part to preserve order in the camp, on the march, in the hunting parties, etc. Seven such bands or unions among the Blackfeet were mentioned to me. They are the following: (1) The band of the mosquitos. This union has no police business to do, but consists of young people, many of whom are only 8 or 10 years of age. There are also some young men among them and sometimes even a couple of old men, in order to see to the observance of the laws and regulations. This union performs wild, youthful pranks; they run about the camp whenever they please; pinch, nip, and scratch men, women, and children in order to give annoyance like the mosquitos. The young people begin with this union and then gradually rise higher through the others. As the badge of their band they wear an eagle’s claw fastened around the wrist with a leather strap. They have also a particular mode of painting themselves, like every other band, and their peculiar songs and dance. (2) The dogs. Its badge is not known to me; it consists of young married men, and the number is not limited. (3) The prairie dogs. This is a police union, which receives married men; its badge is a long hooked stick wound round with otter skin, with knots of white skin at intervals, and a couple of eagle’s feathers hanging from each of them. (4) Those who carry the raven. Its badge is a long staff covered with red cloth, to which black ravens’ feathers in a long thick row are fastened from one end to the other. They contribute to the preservation of order and the police. (5) The buffalo, with thin horns. When they dance they wear horns on their caps. If disorders take place they must help the soldiers, who mark out the camp and then take the first place. (6) The soldiers. They are the most distinguished warriors, who exercise the police, especially in the camp and on the march; in public deliberations they have the casting vote whether, for instance, they shall hunt, change their abode, make war or conclude peace, etc. They carry as their badge a wooden club the breadth of a hand, with hoofs of the buffalo cow hanging to the handle. They are sometimes 40 or 50 men in number. (7) The buffalo bulls. They form the first, that is, the most distinguished, of all the unions, and are the highest in rank. They carry in their hand a medicine badge, hung with buffalo hoofs, which they rattle when they dance to their peculiar song. They are too old to attend to the police, having passed through all the unions, and are considered as having retired from office. In their medicine dance they wear on their head a cap made of the long forelock and mane of the buffalo bull, which hangs down to a considerable length.
Fig. 737.—The policeman.
Fig. 737.—“The policeman” was killed by the enemy. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1780-’81.
The man here figured was probably one of the active members of the associations whose functions are above described to keep order and carry out the commands of the chiefs.