North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    supposed to have received power from some supernatu¬ ral source and sings songs and prays at the bedside. Sometimes vegetable substances are given as medicine, but these are usually harmless, the faith being placed entirely in the religious formula. At death the body was dressed and painted, then wrapped in a robe and placed upon a scaffold, in a tree, or upon a hill. None of the Plains tribes seem to have practised cremation and but a few of them placed the bodies under ground. In fact, the Government authorities still have great difficulty in inducing the modern Indians to inter their dead, as it is against their belief, in that it would interfere with the passage of the spirit to the other world. Government. The political organization was rather loose and in general quite democratic. Each band, gens, or clan informally recognized an indefinite number of men as head men, one or more of whom were formally vested with representative powers in the tribal council. Among the Dakota, there was a kind of society of older men, self-electing, who legislated on all important matters. They appointed four of their number to exercise the executive functions. The Omaha had a somewhat similar system. The Cheyenne had four chiefs of equal rank and a popularly elected council of forty members. Among the Blackfoot we seem to have a much less systematic arrangement, the leading