534 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



The following summary of the characteristic rights and privileges 

 of an Iroquoian clan may be enlightening: (1) The right to a dis- 

 tinctive name, which an invariable custom derives from some animal, 

 bird, or reptile, characteristic of the habitat, which may have been 

 regarded as a guardian genius or protecting deity. (2) Representa- 

 tion by one or more chiefs in the tribal council. (3) An equitable 

 share in the communal property of the tribe. (4) The right and 

 obligation to have its nominations for chief and subchief of the clan 

 confirmed and installed by officers of the tribal council in earlier 

 times, but since the institution of the league, by officers of the federal 

 council. (5) The right to the protection of the tribe of which it is 

 a constituent member. (6) The right of the titles of the chief- 

 ships and subchiefships hereditary in its ohwachira(s). (7) The 

 right to certain songs, chants, dances, and religious observances. 

 (8) The right of its men or women, or both together, to meet in 

 council. (9) The right to the use of certain names of persons, which 

 are given to its members. (10) The right to adopt aliens through 

 the action of a constituent ohwachira. (11) The right of its members 

 to a common burial ground. (12) The right of the mothers of con- 

 stituent ohwachira (s), in which such official titles are inherent, to 

 nominate candidates for chief and subchief; some clans have more 

 than one of each class of chiefs. (13) The right of these same 

 mothers to take the prescribed steps for impeaching and deposing 

 their chiefs and subchief s. (14) The right to share in the religious 

 rites, ceremonies, and public festivals of the tribe. 



The duties incidental to clan membership are the following: The 

 obligation not to marry within the clan, formerly not even within the 

 sisterhood or phratry of clans, to which the one in question belonged ; 

 the effect of membership in the sisterhood of clans was to make all 

 men either mother's brothers or brothers, and all women mothers or 

 sisters. (2) The joint obligation to purchase the life of a member 

 of the clan which has been forfeited by homicide or the murder of a 

 member of the tribe or of an allied tribe. (3) The duty and obliga- 

 tion to aid and to defend its members in supplying their wants, 

 redressing their wrongs and injuries through diplomacy or by force 

 of arms, and in avenging their death. (4) The joint obligation to 

 replace with prisoners or other persons other members who have been 

 lost or killed, belonging to any ohwachira of a clan to which they may 

 be related as father's brothers or father's clansmen, the matron of 

 such ohwachira having the right to ask that this obligation be fulfilled. 



The clan name is not usually among the Iroquois the common 

 designation of the animal or bird or reptile after which the clan may 

 be called, but very commonly denotes some marked feature or charac- 

 teristic or the favorite haunt of it, or it may be just a survival of an 

 archaic name of it. 



