SECRET SOCIETIES.
§ 298. The Dakota use “ihaŋbla” or “ihaŋmda” as the Omaha and Ponka do “iȼa‘eȼĕ,” to describe the mysterious communications received from the animals and spirits (§§ 8, 43-52).
Among the Siouan family of Indians there are societies, religious in character, which are distinguished by the name of some animal. Each society has a ritual composed of chants and songs to be sung during different parts of the ceremonies, having words describing in simple and direct terms the act which accompanies the music. These musical rituals, it is often claimed, have been received in a mysterious or supernatural manner, and are therefore regarded as possessing a religious power * * * Some societies admit women to membership, through their own visions, or occasionally by those of their husbands’, but more generally by means of the visions of male relatives. * * * Membership in these societies is not confined to any particular gens, or grouping of gentes, but depends upon supernatural indications over which the individual has no control. The animal which appears to a man in a vision during his religious fasting determines to which society he must belong.[209]
§ 299. Those having visions or revelations from ghosts are called Wanaġi ihaŋblapi kiŋ. It is such persons who can draw pictures of ghosts with impunity. It is also said that the only persons who have their faces drawn awry by the ghosts are the members of this order. (See § 275.)
§ 300. Bushotter’s step-father belongs to the Tataŋg ihaŋblapi kiŋ, or the Society of those who have Revelations from the Buffalo, answering to the Omaha ┴e iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma (§§ 43, 50). In one of his visions he saw a buffalo with cocklebur down in his hair, so the man subsequently put such down in his own hair in imitation of the buffalo. One night he saw (probably in a vision) a bison going toward the south with a hoop on his head. So the man painted a small hoop red all over and wore it on his head, giving his nephew the name Ćaŋgleśka waŋyaŋg mani, He Walks In-sight-of a Hoop.
§ 301. Some Dakota belong to the Hećiŋśkayapi ihaŋblapi kiŋ, or the Society of those who have Revelations from Goats. Goats are very mysterious, as they walk on cliffs and other high places; and those who dream of goats or have revelations from them imitate their actions. Such men can find their way up and down cliffs, the rocks get soft under their feet, enabling them to maintain a foothold, but they close up behind them, leaving no trail. Members of the Wakaŋ waćipi, or the Order of the Mystery Dance, commonly called the medicine dance, are also reckoned among the mysterious or “wakaŋ” people (see § 113). One of Bushotter’s texts relates to this order. Another of his articles tells of the Miwatani okolakićiye kiŋ or The Mandan Society, which used to be called Ćaŋte ṭiŋza okolakićiye, or Society of the Stout Hearted Ones. It is now known as Kaŋġi yuha, Keeps the Raven. For a notice of this order, see §§ 194, 195.
§ 302. The report of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology for 1884 contains an article on the Elk Mystery or Festival of the Oglala, a division of the Teton Dakota (pp. 276-288). Those who have visions of the elk are the Heḣaka ihaŋblapi kiŋ. Bushotter has recorded articles on different societies as follows: Big Belly Society, Iḣoka and Tokala (animal) Societies, Dog Society, Kaṭela or Taniġa iću Society, Grizzly Bear Dance, and Night Dance; but we have no means of learning whether any or all of them are composed of persons who had visions of animals.
FETICHISM.
PUBLIC OR TRIBAL FETICHES.
§ 303. Among these may be included the Bear Butte, referred to in § 137; and any white buffalo hide, such as has been described in “The White Buffalo Festival of the Uncpapas.”[210]