486 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1932 



as a sisterhood of ohwachira, and were independent of one another 

 in action. For example : The Mohawk and the Oneida tribes, singu- 

 larly like some of the Huron tribes in this respect, each had three 

 clans, namely, the Bear Clan, the Wolf Clan, and the Turtle Clan, 

 which were constituted of a sisterhood of ohwachira, respectively; 

 each ohwachira possessed a male chiefship title, a woman trustee 

 chiefship title, war chiefships, and other lesser official titles. The 

 Mohawk Bear Clan, for example, was constituted of the Large Bear 

 Ohwachira, the Weanling Bear Ohwachira, and the Nursing or Cub 

 Bear Ohwachira; these three ohwachira sisterhoods did not have a 

 common regimen — they were each absolute in the management of 

 their internal affairs. These facts again show how woman in the 

 largest practical measure dominated in all the civil and political 

 activities of the Iroquois state. 



In becoming an integral part of a clan — a higher unit of organi- 

 zation — the ohwachira necesarily delegated some of its self-govern- 

 ment to this higher unit in such wise as to render this coordination 

 of organic units more cohesive and interdependent. The institution 

 of every higher organic unit involved new privileges, duties, and 

 rights, and the individual came under a more complex control and 

 his welfare became more secure through tribunals exercising a greater 

 number of delegated powers in a broader jurisdiction. 



The following brief summary of the characteristic rights, privi- 

 leges, and obligations of the clan may be instructive : 



First, the right to a distinctive name, customarily derived from 

 that of some animal, bird, or reptile, characteristic of the habitat, 

 regarded, perhaps, as a guardian genius or tutelary deity; second, 

 representation by one or more chiefs in the tribal and in the federal 

 councils; third, an equitable share in the communal property of the 

 tribe to which it belonged; fourth, the right and the obligation to 

 have the nominations for chieftain and w^ar chief, and woman trustee 

 chieftain, and their aids, confirmed and installed by officers of the 

 tribal council, and since the institution of the League of the Iroquois, 

 by officers of the federal council ; fifth, the right to protection by the 

 tribe of which it was a constituent member; sixth, the right to the 

 titles of the chiefships and war chiefships hereditary in its ohwa- 

 chira; seventh, the right to certain songs, chants, dances, and 

 religious observances; eighth, the right of its men or women, or both 

 together, to meet in council; ninth, the right to the use of certain 

 proper names belonging to the several constituent ohwachira; tenth, 

 the right to adopt aliens through the essential action of its ohwachira; 

 eleventh, the right of its members to the use of a common burial 

 ground; tAvelfth, the right of the members of its constituent ohwa- 

 chira, possessing official titles, to nominate candidates for chieftain. 



