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164 Brooks (Bowers 1965: 415), Duskwalker had little chance of reintegrating with life at the main Hidatsa village. No doubt he suffered beneath the oppressive traditionalism of clan-based vision rituals and became the object of the same jealousies as his father. When the Hidatsa villages were ravaged by smallpox in 1837, he used his supernatural powers as a rallying point for others who were frightened and disaffected and led this faction to the site that now bears his inaccurate name (Figure 8-7). This site features 27 house-pits surrounded by the remains of a timber palisade. It was occupied until at least 1846, when the remnants of the Mandan and Hidatsa coalesced in a single nearby village, the one known as Like-A-Fishhook (Lehmer, Wood, and Dill 1978: 66-68). The Strong Jaw-Duskwalker line seems to end here, although more research may link it ultimately to the last schism under consideration, that of Crow Flies High in 1871. Crow Flies High "Wolf Chief (b. 1849) described the training of young men as equivalent to a wagon drawn along a deeply rutted road; there was no way to get out of the road except by going forward in the same path as others had done before-one could make no progress backing up, and the depth of the ruts prevented one from taking a different course. A young man ... got along very well as long as he performed in the same way as his elders had; he was destined to be very unhappy if he attempted to stray the least little bit from the beaten path. The only effective alternative was to become a berdache" (Bowers 1965: 220). In fact, another alternative existed. Factionalism provided release for those who had irresolvable differences with the governing hierarchy. In the last case I will discuss, a breach resulted again from political tensions that had their expression in supernatural discourse. The oppressive regimentation of life described above by Wolf Chief grew too heavy for a segment of the villagers at Like-A-Fishhook, and "under conditions approaching a civil war"(Bowers 1965: 77) they departed for the west. Twenty-five years were to pass before they returned to the reservation, but when they did so, they closed a circle that had begun with the original vision of No Vitals, for in their seminomadic hegira they reestablished close ties with the Crow, a relationship that continues today. The Crow-Flies-High schism was related to internal power disputes that had simmered since the coalescence of the Mandan and Hidatsa in a single village in 1845. Traditionally, the highest ceremonial position in Hidatsa villages had gone to the men who held the powerful Earthnaming Sing Away the Buffalo 165 bundles, three of which had existed since the founding of the Knife River villages. With the smallpox epidemic, one bundle line died out; the remaining two bundle bearers found themselves coexisting at Like-A-Fishhook . In 1871, these two bundles were owned by Bobtail Bull and Poor Wolf, who was senior by ten years. When Poor Wolf was selected village chief by the elders, the younger people allied themselves with Bobtail Bull in a challenge to generational and institutional authority (Bowers 1965: 42-43). However, Bobtail Bull, by virtue of his acceptance of the traditional role ofbundle bearer, did not prove radical enough to trigger a revolt. This role fell to Crow Flies High, a charismatic man whose parents had died in the epidemic of 1837. His rejection of traditional ways had begun in early manhood, for although his father was an important bearer of the OldWoman -Who-Never-Dies bundle and he had received a vision that gave him the right to take possession of the bundle and its associated rites, he chose not to exercise this prerogative: "Instead, he made up a personal bundle of those articles seen in his dream and otherwise disregarded tribal practices of 'taking up the father's gods.' Thus, the old 'holy' men got neither a big feast nor fine goods and Crow Flies High received neither promises of success in warfare ... nor the promise he would some day become a chief. Still, he was very successful whenever he went out to war" (Bowers 1965: 43). Crow Flies High's achievements validated the oppositional power of the individual vision experience versus the carefully monitored institutional quest and posed a severe challenge to traditional authority. In an eerie echo of the first Hidatsa/Crow schism, internal tension...

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