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Stories Told Ten Years Ago
This leader has been dead forty years. His name and
story were told me ten years ago by trusty Indians who knew the man, and
shared not only in this experience, but in a similar one when this same man
again came to the relief of the tribe. He never served as leader except in
such extremities.
Occurrences like these threw a glamour about the office of
leader, and seemed to give miraculous testimony to the truth of the Indian's
belief that whatever happened to a man was in some way the result of his
character; consequently, if a man assumed official responsibilities, any
good or ill fortune which befell the people was due to the personal relation
between their leader and W Amanda. For instance, a man was once leader, and
the tribe had nothing but ill fortune under him. After he had been deposed
it was discovered that he had committed a murder which had never been atoned
for11 and
this explained to them why no good thing could come to the people through
such a man.
The hunts over, the tribe turned homeward; and when
within about four days' march of their village the annual ceremony of
thanksgiving took place. Sometimes friendly tribes would hunt together, when
the invited Indians would fall into the customs, and be present at the
public religious ceremonies, of the tribe.
Hunting the deer, elk, or other solitary game, while it
developed individual prowess, did not call for associated effort, and
consequently had little, if any, influence on the growth of the organization
of the tribe; on the other hand, the habits of the buffalo were such as to
invite and necessitate the combined action of the people depending upon it
for their food. As a result, the tribes living in the buffalo country
reached a higher social organization than those outside its limits. The
Omaha tribe bore proof within itself that its government had modified and
developed since it came tell within the range of the buffalo. From the
supremacy of the warrior chief it passed to the rule of an oligarchy, in
which the attainment of a place was dependent upon the accumulation of
property; and those chiefs who reached this high position ceased to be
warriors, and became the conservers of peace. The laws which grew up around
the buffalo hunt, lined of the exigencies of the tribe and the habits of the
animal, were based upon the recognized fact that the rights of the whole
people were greater than those of the individual. These laws bore equally
upon all, and the Indian comprehended that the continued existence of the
community rested upon the impartial execution of them. It is one of the
peculiarities of the American Indian that in grasping the idea of the
authority of law, he did not centralize and embody it in a despotic form,
but kept it in the ideal, as something to be administered by him only who
possessed the requisite ability.
The study of Omaha hunting reinforces the testimony
given by other races as to how great a factor the method of obtaining the
food-supply has been in the development of social order.
11 Murder was atoned for in two
ways: by large and valuable gifts, which were bestowed with certain
ceremonies upon the near of kin of the deceased by the offender and his
immediate relatives; or else the murderer must suffer exclusion from the
tribe for a term of years, living apart, sewed up in hide, and not permitted
to speak to any one but his wife, who could share his exile. He could wear
nothing that might wave in the wind, since such it movements would attract
the attention of the spirits, and trouble that of the man he had murdered.
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Omaha Hunting Customs
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