There was an Old Women society (tsaLietsu`nyū´p) and a Bear society
(onnā´atema). The latter had very few members, only about ten or
eleven. Some members were old, some were young. A few women, including
Charlie Fanto´ni's grandmother, belonged to both.
The Old Women were not all old, though none was young. There were about
thirty-five or forty of them. They selected their daughters or other
close kinswomen for successors; this also applies to the Bears. A woman
made a feast four times before becoming a member. The Old Women danced
round in a circle, and had a drum. In marching, one leader was in front,
another in the rear. The Bears merely imitated the motions of bears with
their hands. They did not allow any outsider to come in when they had a
dance.
If a man started out for war he prayed to the Old Women, saying that if
he came back successful he should give them a feast. In fulfilling his
promise, he called the women, lit a pipe, presented it to them, and each
member smoked in turn, then prayed for the warrior's honor and long
life. Then the warriors brought water for the women, who drank it and
prayed again. Then the feast was brought, the war leader recited his
deeds, and then one of the leaders of the society cut a little piece of
meat, buried it in the ground and prayed, treating in the same way a
pinch or slice of every kind of food. Then they ate.
This body is clearly described by Battey, who saw its members perform
for an hour or two in the afternoon during the preparatory arrangements
for a sun dance:--
The music consisted of singing and drumming, done by several old
women, who were squatted on the ground in a circle. The
dancers--old, gray-headed women, from sixty to eighty years of
age--performed in a circle around them for some time, finally
striking off upon a waddling run, one behind another; they formed a
circle, came back, and, doubling so as to bring two together, threw
their arms around each other's necks, and trudged around for some
time longer; then sat down, while a youngish man circulated the
pipe from which each in turn took two or three whiffs, and this
ceremony ended.[23]