ii6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in this field. Professors Henry and Agassiz were especially urgent in 

 the matter, and Morgan decided to return to his old studies, but rather 

 as an amateur and in such a manner as not to interfere with his pro- 

 fession. 



In 1858 he was at Marquette, where he found an encampment of 

 Ojibwa Indians, and, going into a tent, sat down with an Indian, and 

 gradually in conversation drew from him an account of the Ojibwa 

 system of kinship, the list of gentes, and the gentile organization of 

 the tribe, and found them essentially the same as the Iroquois. 



To him this was a great surprise, for up to this time he had sup- 

 posed that the Iroquois Confederacy had a system peculiar to itself 

 and was an anomaly among governments. But here he found society 

 and government organized upon the same plan, and yet the linguistic 

 terms were totally different. He had thus discovered the essential 

 characteristic of tribal government in two distinct stocks of our North 

 American Indians, and it occurred to him that the system might extend 

 further, so he determined to pursue his investigations among other 

 Indians. 



On his return to Rochester he took up " Riggs's Dakota Grammar 

 and Dictionary," then lately published by the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and found in the kinship terms as therein defined evidences of the same 

 kinship system. He then more carefully examined the English and 

 Roman systems, especially as they are set forth by Blackstone and 

 in the Pandects of Justinian. Finally, he prepared schedules of in- 

 quiry to be circulated among missionaries, teachers, traders, and other 

 persons familiar with Indian life. 



At this stage Professor Henry became deeply interested in the 

 investigations and published the schedules for Mr. Morgan, which 

 were widely distributed in America and throughout the world by the 

 Smithsonian Institution and by the active cooperation of General Cass, 

 who was then Secretary of State. 



During the earlier years Mr. Morgan was greatly disappointed with 

 the returns from the circulation of these schedules. The subject was 

 new and strange, and the persons to whom they were sent were slow 

 in comprehending the nature and value of the researches suggested ; 

 and so he determined to pursue his investigations in person, and for 

 this purpose in 1859 he made an expedition through Kansas and 

 Nebraska. In 1860 he went over the same ground, revising his former 

 work, increasing his observations, and extended his journey far up 

 the Missouri River. In 1861 he made a trip to the Hudson Bay Terri- 

 tory and Lake Winnipeg, and in 1863 to Fort Benton and the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



In his travels he everywhere sought the Indian tribes, and through 

 the aid of interpreters white men and Indians filled out his own 

 schedules and extended his studies into the social life and government 

 of the Indians and other collateral branches of anthropology. 



