The Canadian Sioux

7. Social Life

72 7 SOC IAL L IFE CHILDREN The Sioux infant was ushered into the world with the assistance of a midwife, generally a female relative of the mother. This woman cut and tied the umbilical cord and wiped the baby dry. Should the mother experience difficulty in bearing the child, the midwife might administer an herb decoction to the mother. George Bear (Birdtail) said that his father possessed such a “midwife herb.” This plant was dried, ground up, and mixed with rattlesnake fat. It made the unborn child afraid, causing it to come out of the mother’s womb. Scaring the baby out of the womb was also the theory behind a Heyókha (anti-natural clown) being called in to assist in a difficult birth on the Standing Buffalo Reserve in an incident mentioned by John Goodwill. The place of birth, for most of my older informants, was the family tipi. Several mentioned that they had been “born in a tipi,” a boast akin to the nineteenth century politician’s claim to having been born in a log cabin. John Goodwill (Standing Buffalo) stated that the first-born son in a family was put in a highly decorated waphóštaŋ (baby cradle hood), often completely decorated with quillwork or beadwork. Since it had taken months to manufacture and would be used only a short time, this waphóštaŋ was designed so that the beaded or quilled pieces on either side could later be used as shoulder ornaments on the boy’s dancing costume. John’s own waphóštaŋ was used in this way when he was sixteen years old. The Plains Ojibwas also practiced a similar custom. Social Life 73 The baby’s umbilical cord was dried and preserved in a small buckskin pouch, which was regarded as an amulet or talisman. John Goodwill commented that he still has his umbilical cord pouch and that it brings him luck. The Sioux cradle was either of the waphóštaŋ type, to the back of which wooden supports could be attached for rigidity, or was a solid wooden board to which a bent wooden bow was attached at the top, and a cloth bag to hold the baby attached further down. In both types the infant was placed in the pouch, which was laced up and bound around with buckskin thongs so that only the baby’s head appeared. Before lacing up the bag, moss was placed between the infant’s legs to absorb excrement. The cradle could then be carried in the mother’s arms, on her back by means of a strap, or could be slung from the saddle horn when the mother was riding. When she was working in her garden or tanning hides, the cradle could be set up nearby or hung on a tree limb. Since the infant could not move his arms and legs in such a cradle, the child was removed from time to time to be bathed and to exercise. When the mother was working in the tipi or house, the baby was often placed in a baby hammock. This hammock, generally slung in a corner of a room or between two poles in a tipi, would be pushed gently from time to time to rock the baby. Such hammocks went out of use only recently according to Sam Buffalo (Round Plain). When he was still quite small, the child’s paternal grandfather pierced his ears for earrings. This was a ceremonial act and was accompanied by a distribution of gifts by the parents. It served to introduce the child, as a distinct personality, to the members of the tribe. Kenneth Eastman (Oak Lake) recalled his own ear piercing and also that his grandfather had given him a necklace of muskrat paws when he was very small. He commented, “A muskrat is a hard worker, and this was supposed to make me a hard worker, too.” Sioux children learned by observing adults and were incorporated into adult activities as soon as their coordination and strength permitted. Games like cup and pin and hoop and pole also taught coordination. Legends told around the campfire in winter provided object lessons 74 THE CANADIAN SIOUX in human behavior. The folktales involving Uŋktómi (‘Spider’), the mischievous anti-hero of the Sioux, were particularly valuable in this respect, teaching in a humorous manner the folly of excessive vanity , envy, boastfulness, and other human frailties...