§ 364. Among the Omaha, Iowa, and cognate tribes, we find that when a gens assembled as a whole, for council purposes, they sat around the fire in the order shown in the accompanying diagram, Fig. 193:
Legend.—1, Black Bear subgens; 2, Small Bird subgens; 3, Eagle subgens; 4, Turtle subgens; 5, fireplace; 6, entrance.
Places in the circle were assigned according to kinship; thus, the Black Bear and Small Bird people are spoken of as “sitting on the same side of the fireplace,” as they are full kin, while they are only partially related to those who sit on the other side (Nos. 3 and 4). That the fireplace was sacred, there being traces of a hearth cult, has been shown in §§ 33 and 40. Furthermore, the Ȼatada circle is remarkable not only for its arrangement according to kinship, but for its symbolic character; because the Black Bear people are associated with the ground or earth, as is shown by their personal names; the Small Bird people are Thunder-beings or Fire people; the Eagle subgens consist of “Wind-maker” people; and the Turtle subgens is composed of Water people.
FIG. 194.—The four elements, etc.
§ 365. This suggests another diagram, Fig. 194, in which the author has put the names of four classes of Dakota gods, with what he suspects to be their appropriate colors, R standing for red, B for black, Y for yellow, and Bl for blue.
Earth people serve or assist Fire people (§ 35 and perhaps § 36). Do Water people ever serve Wind-maker people (see address to a stream in time of war, § 23)? The Fire powers are hostile to the powers of the Water (§§ 75, 77, 117-119); we have yet to learn whether, in any gens, a subgens named after the Thunder-being sits on the same side of the gentile fireplace with a subgens named after a power of the Water. Is there a warfare going on between the powers of the Earth and the Wind-makers? The Fire powers and Wind-makers are concerned in all kinds of suffering, including war, disease, and death (§§ 117, 119, 127, 129), and there is no hostility existing between them.[284]
The Kaⁿe gens of the Osage has several names, Wind people, South-wind people, Those who light the pipes (in council), and Fire people.
The powers of the Earth and Water are interested in the preservation of life, and so we may consider them the patrons of peace. “Peace,” in Omaha, Ponka, and ┴ɔiwere, means “The land is good,” and “to make peace” is expressed by “to make the land good.” The words for “water” and “life” are identical in some of the Siouan languages, and they differ but slightly in others.