Hoita
Mandan · deity · Mandan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Hoita, the Speckled Eagle, is the Mandan master of the animals and one of the principal figures of the Okipa. A powerful being born among the Mandan, he shut the animals of the earth inside Dog Den Butte and made them perform a dance there. Lone Man, transforming himself to investigate, learned the dance, and after a contest Hoita released the animals; the two were reconciled and together established the Okipa so that the buffalo and game would return to the people. Within the ceremony Hoita is the patron of the masked dancers who impersonate the animals, and it is the Speckled Eagle who designates the man chosen to play the Foolish One.
Domains
- master of the animals
- ceremony and ritual
Powers
- to gather and command the animals of the earth
- to preside over the masked animal dancers of the Okipa
Epithets
- HoitaAlfred W. Bowers, Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950. (secondary)
Relations
- rival: Lone ManHoita's confinement of the animals within Dog Den Butte sets him against Lone Man, who contrives their release; the contest of the two is the heart of the Okipa and resolves in their joint founding of the rite.Alfred W. Bowers, Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950. (secondary)
- creator of: The Foolish OneOn the second day of the Okipa the Speckled Eagle figure selects a man to become the Foolish One, Oxinhede.Leslie V. Tischauser, "Okipa", in David J. Wishart (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. (secondary)
Sources
- Hoita, the Speckled Eagle, is the Mandan master of the animals who imprisoned the game within Dog Den Butte and, reconciled with Lone Man, co-founded the Okipa, in which he is patron of the animal dancers.: Alfred W. Bowers, Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950. (secondary); Leslie V. Tischauser, "Okipa", in David J. Wishart (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. (secondary)