On the north-eastern border the Plains-Ojibway and Plains-Cree combine many traits of the forest hunting tribes with those found in the Plains. The Dakota or Sioux are universally conceded to be of the highest type, physically, mentally and probably morally of any of the western tribes. Their bravery has never been questioned by white or Indian and they conquered or drove out every rival except the Ojibway. Their physical characteristics are as follows: dark skin faintly tinged with red, facial features more strongly marked than those of the Pacific Coast Indians, nose and lower jaw particularly prominent and heavy, head generally mesocephalic and not artificially deformed. They are a free and dominant race of hunters and warriors, necessarily strong and active. Their weapons of stone, wood, bone and horn are tomahawk, club, flint knife, and bow and arrow. All their habits centre in the bison, which provided the staple materials of nutrition and industry. Drawing and painting were done on prepared bison skins and elaborately carved pipes were made for ceremonial use. They are divided into kinship groups, with inheritance as a rule in the male line. The woman is autocrat of the home. Exogamy was strictly enforced in the clan but marriage within the tribe or with related tribes was encouraged. The marriage was arranged by the parents and polygyny was common where means would permit. Government consisted in chieftainship acquired by personal merit, and the old men exercised considerable influence. Religious conceptions were based on a belief in _Wakonda_ or _Manito_[834], an all-pervading spirit force, whose cult involved various shamanistic ceremonials consisting of dancing, chanting, feasting and fasting. Most distinctive of these is the Sun dance, practised by almost all the tribes of the plains except the Comanche. It is an annual festival lasting several days, in honour of the sun, for the purpose of obtaining abundant produce throughout the year. The Sun dance was not only the greatest ceremony of the Plains tribes but was a condition of their existence. More than any other ceremony or occasion, it furnished the tribe the opportunity for the expression of emotion in rhythm, and was the occasion of the tribe becoming more closely united. It gave opportunity for the making and renewing of common interests, the inauguration of tribal policies, and the renewing of the rank of the chiefs; for the exhibition, by means of mourning feasts, of grief over the loss of members of families; for the fulfilment of social obligations by means of feasts; and, finally, for the exercise and gratification of the emotions of love on the part of the young in the various social dances which always formed an interesting feature of the ceremony[835].