Page:Siouan Sociology.djvu/17

GENERAL FEATURES OF ORGANIZATION or soldiers, and young men or "the common people." The chiefs are the civil and religious leaders of the masses; the policemen are the servants of the chiefs; the young men are such as have not distinguished themselves in war or in any other way. These last have no voice in the assembly, which is composed of the chiefs alone. Among the Omaha there is no military class, yet there is a war element which is regulated by the Elk gens. The ¢ixida gens and part of the Nikadaɔna gens of the Ponka tribe are considered to be the warriors of the tribe, though members of other gentes have participated in war. In the Kansa tribe two gentes, the Large Hañga and the Small Hañga, form the phratry connected with war, though warriors did not necessarily belong to those gentes alone. In the Osage camping circle all the gentes on the right side are war gentes, but the first and second, reckoning from the van, are the soldiers or policemen; while all the gentes camping on the left are associated with peace, though their first and second gentes, reckoning from the van, are policemen or soldiers. Among the Omaha both officers and warriors must be taken from the class of "young men," as the chiefs are afraid to act as leaders in war; and among both the Omaha and the Ponka the chiefs, being the civil and religious leaders of the people, can not serve as captains, or even as members, of an ordinary war party, though they may fight when the whole tribe engages in war. Among the Dakota, however, chiefs have led in time of war.

Corporations among the Siouan tribes are minor organizations, indirectly related to the government, though they do not constitute a part of it. The Omaha, for instance, and perhaps other tribes of the family, are organized into certain societies for religious, industrial, and other ends. There are two kinds of societies, the brotherhoods and the feasting organizations. The former are the dancing societies, to some of which the physicians belong.

Social classes are undifferentiated. Any man can win a name