Arikara. (Corruptly abbreviated Ree.)
Imitate the manner of shelling corn, holding the left hand stationary, the shelling being done with the right. (Creel.) Fig. 284.
With the right hand closed, curve the thumb and index, join their tips so as to form a circle, and place to the lobe of the ear. (Absaroka I; Hidatsa I.) “Big ear-rings.” Fig. 285.
Both hands, fists, (B, except thumbs) in front of body, backs looking toward the sides of the body, thumbs obliquely upward, left hand stationary, the backs of the fingers of the two hands touching, carry the right thumb forward and backward at the inner side of the left thumb and without moving the hand from the left, in imitation of the act of shelling corn. (Dakota I, VII, VIII.)
Collect the fingers and thumb of the right hand nearly to a point, and make a tattooing or dotting motion toward the upper portion of the cheek. This is the old sign, and was used by them previous to the adoption of the more modern one representing “corn-eaters.” (Arikara I.)
Place the back of the closed right hand transversely before the mouth, and rotate it forward and backward several times. This gesture may be accompanied, as it sometimes is, by a motion of the jaws as if eating, to illustrate more fully the meaning of the rotation of the fist. (Kaiowa I; Comanche III; Wichita II; Apache I.) “Corn-eater; eating corn from the ear.”
Signified by the same motions with the thumbs and forefingers that are used in shelling corn. The dwarf Ree (Arikara) corn is their peculiar possession, which their tradition says was given to them by a superior being, who led them to the Missouri River and instructed them how to plant it. (Rev. C. L. Hall, in The Missionary Herald, April, 1880.) “They are the corn-shellers.” Have seen this sign used by the Arikaras as a tribal designation. (Dakota II.)
Assinaboin.
Hands in front of abdomen, horizontal, backs outward, ends of fingers pointing toward one another, separated and arched (H), then moved up and down and from side to side as though covering a corpulent body. This sign is also used to indicate the Gros Ventres of the Prairie or Atsina. (Dakota I.)
Make the sign of cutting the throat. (Kutine I.) As the Assinaboins belong to the Dakotan stock, the sign generally given for the Sioux may be used for them also.