ạ hạ hé̱ aī (ī) ạ pạ tḯp É̱ dï ạ́ kạ tạ Hĭ dā̆́t sạ Hō Wạsh té̱ Ït sï dï shï dï ḯ tạ kạ Ït sï kạ mä́ hï dï Kạ dū́ te̱ tạ kū kạts Mạ hḯ dï wī ạ Mā̆́n dăn mï hạ́ dīts Mĭ nĭ tä́ rĭ nạ Săn tḗē Sioux (Sōō). (The plural, spelled also Sioux, is commonly pronounced Soos.) tḗ pēē Tsạ kạ́ kạ sạ kĭ Tsạ́ wạ ū ạ kī hĕ kĕ FOREWORD Catlin in 1832, and Maximilian in 1833, have made famous the culture of the Mandan and Minitari, or Hidatsa, tribes. In 1907, I was sent out by the American Museum of Natural History, to begin anthropological studies among the remnants of these peoples, on Fort Berthold Reservation; and I have been among them each summer, ever since. During these years, Goodbird has been my faithful helper and interpreter. His mother, Mahidiwia, or Buffalo Bird Woman, is a marvelous source of information on old-time life and beliefs. Indians have a gentle custom of adopting very dear friends by relationship terms; by such adoption, Goodbird is my brother; Mahidiwia is my mother. The stories which make this little book were told me by Goodbird in August, 1913. I have but put Goodbird’s Indian-English into common idiom. The stories are his own; in them he has bared his heart. In 1908, and again in 1913, my brother, Frederick N. Wilson, was also sent by the Museum to make drawings of Hidatsa arts. Illustrations in this book are from studies made by him in those years; a few are redrawn from simpler sketches by Goodbird himself. Acknowledgment is made of the courtesy of the Museum’s curator, Dr. Clark Wissler, whose permission makes possible the publishing of this book. May _Goodbird’s Story_ give the reader a kindly interest in his people. Minneapolis. G. L. W. [Illustration: An Old Hidatsa Village.] I BIRTH I was born on a sand bar, near the mouth of the Yellowstone, seven years before the battle in which Long Hair[1] was killed. My tribe had camped on the bar and were crossing the river in bull boats. As ice chunks were running on the Missouri current, it was probably the second week in November. The Mandans and my own people, the Hidatsas, were once powerful tribes who dwelt in five villages at the mouth of the Knife River, in what is now North Dakota. Smallpox weakened both peoples; the survivors moved up the Missouri and built a village at Like-a-fish-hook Bend, or Fort Berthold as the whites called it, where they dwelt together as one tribe. They fortified their village with a fence of upright logs against their enemies, the Sioux.