LEAGUE OF IROQUOIS HEWITT. 529 



more powerful Huron tribes, to which the two mentioned above as 

 living on the St. Lawrence River migrated about the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, and formed an alliance with them. These 

 are the four Huron tribes mentioned in the Jesuit Relations. South- 

 ward from the Huron tribes, and in the peninsula lying westward 

 from Niagara River and northward from Lake Erie and extending 

 eastward over Niagara River to the watershed of the Genesee River 

 in New York State, were situated the numerous towns of the powerful 

 " neuter nation." also of cognate speech. South and southeastward 

 of Lake Erie dwelt the warlike Erie, who also were of cognate 

 speech with the Iroquois tribes ; and still farther eastward were the 

 little known Black Minqua also of cognate language. In the upper 

 Susquehanna river valley, especially in the Wyoming valley, lived 

 the noted Massawomeke also of cognate speech. On the lower 

 Susquehanna dwelt the fiercely warlike Conestoga. On the Dela- 

 ware river and its affluents dwelt the Lanape or Delaware tribes 

 who spoke Algonquian dialects. Eastward, along and beyond the 

 Hudson River dwelt the Mohegan and their cognates who also 

 spoke Algonquian dialects. Such summarily was the tribal environ- 

 ment of the five Iroquois tribes at the era of the institution of their 

 league or confederation. Tradition is silent as to any extensive 

 warfare with these surrounding tribes anterior to the founding of 

 the league. 



History records the use of two fundamentally distinct methods of 

 grouping peoples by means of institutional bonds. The grouping of 

 men in this manner has been aptly termed regimentation. The two 

 systems mentioned are the tribal system of regimentation and the 

 national system of regimentation. In the first, men are regimented 

 or organized on the basis of kinship and affiinity, real or as a legal 

 fiction, and in the second, men are regimented or organized in insti- 

 tutional units on the basis of territory. But history records transi- 

 tional forms of organization, and the most important -of these is the 

 feudal, for both methods mentioned above are found in feudal so- 

 ciety, showing transition from tribal to national society and govern- 

 ment. 



Now, the tribes of the Iroquoian stock of languages are regi- 

 mented or organized on the basis of kinship and affinity, real or as 

 a legal fiction, and they trace descent or lineage of blood only 

 through the mother. 



To grasp fully and to comprehend clearly the structure and the 

 workings of the great institution which is called the league or con- 

 federation of the Five Nations, one must have a summary but clear 

 knowledge of the several constituent units which in the last analysis 

 have voice and place in its structure and workings. 



