Siouan Sociology - Omaha Indian Heritage Project

THE MANDAN

The Mandan tribe has not been visited by the author, who must content himself with giving the list of gentes furnished by Morgan, in his "Ancient Society." This author's system of spelling is preserved:

1. Wolf gens, Ho-ra-taʹ-mŭ-make (Qa-ra-taʹ nu-mañʹ-ke?).

2. Bear gens, Mä-toʹ-no-mäke (Ma-toʹ nu-mañʹ-ke).

3. Prairie-chicken gens, See-pooshʹ-kä (Si-puʹ-cka nu-mañʹ-ke).

4. Good-knife gens, Tä na tsuʹ kä (Ta-ne-tsuʹ-ka nu-mañʹ-ke?).

5. Eagle gens, Ki-täʹ-ne-mäke (Qi-taʹ nu-mañʹ-ke?).

6. Flat-head gens, E-stä-paʹ (Hi-sta peʹ nu-mañʹ-ke?).

7. High-village gens, Me-te-ahʹ-ke.

All that follows concerning the Mandan was recorded by Prince Maximilian in 1833. Polygamy was everywhere practiced, the number of wives differing, there being seldom more than four, and in general only one. The Mandan marriage customs resemble those of the Dakota and other cognate peoples.

When a child is born a person is paid to give it the name chosen by the parents and kindred. The child is held up, then turned to all sides of the heavens, in the direction of the course of the sun, and its name is proclaimed. A Mandan cradle consists of a leather bag suspended by a strap to a crossbeam in the hut.

There are traces of descent in the female line; for example, sisters have great privileges; all the horses that a young man steals or captures in war are brought by him to his sister. He can demand from his sister any object in her possession, even the clothing which she is wearing, and he receives it immediately. The mother-in-law never speaks to her son-in-law, unless on his return from war he bring her the scalp and gun of a slain foe, in which event she is at liberty from that moment to converse with him. This custom is found, says Maximilian, among the Hidatsa, but not among the Crow and Arikara. While the Dakota, Omaha, and other tribes visited by the author have the custom of

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"bashfulness," which forbids the mother-in-law and son-in-law to speak to each other, no allowable relaxation of the prohibition has been recorded.

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