REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 69 



mind. It must not be overlooked that either the mother side or the 

 father side may be the " mourning side " ; the designation, of course, 

 alternates between the two sides, depending on the fact of the loss of 

 one or more of the members of the Federal council belonging to it at 

 any given time. 



The sisterhood of tribes functioned by the independent action of 

 its constituent institutional units — every several tribe. In turn 

 every tribe functioned through the organic units of its own internal 

 organization — each several clan, to exei^ite its prescribed part in the 

 larger Federal action, which otherwise would not be authentic or 

 authoritative; so that a clan or an individual in a clan, in special 

 cases involving personal rights, might prevent vital Federal action. 

 So personal rights were abundantly safeguarded. 



Mr. Hewitt purchased a ver^'^ fine specimen husk mask of the Corn 

 Mother, with a short explanatory text. 



Mr. Hewitt also made a reconnaissance trip to the Chippewa of 

 Garden Kiver, Canada, for the purpose of expanding and deepening 

 his knowledge of certain Chippewa texts, recorded in 1921 by him 

 from the dictation of Mr. George Gabaoosa, of Garden Kiver, and 

 also to obtain data in regard to the derivation of two very important 

 proper names, Chippewa and Nanabozho (appearing in literature 

 also as Nenabojo, Menaboju, and Wenaboju), and also to inform 

 himself as to the ethnologic value to be placed on the fast-fading 

 remains of the ethnic culture of this and cognate tribes in like situa- 

 tions and antecedents. The myth of Mud j ike wis, "The First-Born 

 (on Earth)," commonly called the story of Nanabozho (i. e., 

 Indhi'oji^o''), remarkable for beauty and comprehensiveness, details 

 the circumstances which gave rise to the name " Nanabozho." In 

 that recital the name appeared as Indhi^oji^o^) and means "Created, 

 or formed, by the look (of the Great Father spirit)." 



The name Chippewa appears in literature in no less than 97 

 variant spellings, wdth a half dozen or more unsatisfactory defini- 

 tions. But to those who first gave the name Chippewa (in its native, 

 not Europeanized, form) to these people, picture-writing was ethni- 

 cally distinctive and characteristic of them as the well-known birch- 

 bark records of these people amply testify. So the name Chippewa 

 signifies literally, " Those who make pictographs," and thus empha- 

 sizes one of the distinctive arts of these peoples. 



The Seneca in Missouri and Oklahoma were visited for the express 

 purpose of identifying them tribally, if the available information 

 made this possible. Since the middle of the eighteenth century 

 these Seneca have not been closely affiliated with the Seneca Tribe 

 of New York State and Canada. There has been expressed doubt 

 that these western Seneca had the right to this name. But after 

 76041—26 6 



