The Spartans of the West 39 



men of her tribe, in general. This view, due largely to inac- 

 curate obser^'ation and misconception, was correct, perhaps, 

 at times, as to a small percentage of the tribes and peoples whose 

 social organization was of the most elementary kind politically 

 and ceremonially, and especially of such tribes as were non- 

 agricultural. " ("Handbook of American Indians," Bur. Am. 

 Ethn., p. 968.) 



"Among the Iroquoian tribes — the Susquehanna, the Hurons, 

 and the Iroquois — the penalties for killing a woman of the tribe 

 were double those exacted for the killing of a man, because 

 in the death of a woman, the Iroquoian lawgivers recognized 

 the probable loss of a long line of prospective offspring." 

 ("Handbook American Indian," p. 971.) 



" In most, if not in all, the highly organized tribes, the woman 

 was the sole master of her own body." ("Handbook North 

 American Indian," p. 972.) 



"The men are the warriors and hunters, though an old woman 

 of rank usually steers the war-canoe." ("Coast Indian"; 

 Niblack; 1S89; p. 253.) 



"A mother possessed the important authority to forbid her 

 sons going on the war-path, and frequently the chiefs took 

 advantage of this power of the woman, to avoid a rupture 

 with another tribe." ("Handbook North American Indian," 

 p. 971.) 



"Roger Williams, with reference to another subject, brings 

 this same respect for woman to view; he wrote: 'So did 

 never the Lord Jesus bring any luito his most pure worship, for 

 he abhors, as all men, yea, the ver}^ Indians, an unwilling spouse 

 to enter into forced relations. " ("Handbook North America, " 

 p. 972.) 



"At a later day, and in the face of circimistances adverse to 

 the Indians, Gen. James Clinton, who commanded the New 

 York Division in the Sullivan expedition in 1779, against the 

 hostile Iroquois, paid his enemies the tribute of a soldier, by 

 writing in April, 1779, to Colonel Van Schaick, then leading the 

 troops against the Onondaga, the following terse compliment: 

 ' Bad as the savages are, they never violate the chastity of any 

 woman, their prisoners. ' " 



"Among the Sioux and the Yuchi, men who made a practice 

 of seduction were in grave bodily danger, from the aggrieved 

 women and girls, and the resort by the latter to extreme meas- 



