diverging collateral Hues. The degrees of relationship are never 

 allowed to pass beyond that of first cousin, after which the collat- 

 eral lines revert into, or are merged in the lineal, in such a man- 

 ner that the son of a man's cousin becomes his nephew, and the 

 son of this nephew becomes his grandson. This principle works 

 upwards as well as downwards, in such a manner, that the brother 

 of a man's father becomes his father, and the brother of his grand- 

 father becomes also his grand-father, in this, to us, novel system 

 of consanguinity. 



At first, I supposed that this peculiar system was confined to 

 the Iroquois, and was a scheme of their own invention ; but sub- 

 sequent investigation disclosed the striking fact, that the system iu 

 all its complexity and precision is common to all the multitudinous 

 Indian nations of North America, and most likely of both con- 

 tinents. At least, I have found, from schedules filled up and in 

 my hands, with the exception of the Pawnee and Omaha, in which 

 cases the schedules are but partially filled out, the system com- 

 plete in the following Indian nations : the Iroquois and Wyan- 

 dotte, who belong to the Hodenosaunian family; theOjibwa, Otawa, 

 Potowottomie, Peoria, Shawnee, Delaware, and Mohekuneuk, who 

 belong to the Algonquin family j the Choctaw, which belongs to 

 the Appalachian family; the Winnebagoe, Mississippi Dakota, 

 Missouri Dakota, Iowa, Otoe, Kaw, and Omaha, who belong to the 

 Dakotan family ; and the Pawnee, which perhaps with the Aric- 

 karee, constitutes an independent family ; making in all, sixteen 

 difibrent Indian nations, among all of whom the system is now in 

 daily use. 



Besides these, by means of the Indians above named who could 

 ^peak for their kindred nations, and by information obtained from 

 the French trappers and traders of the Upper Missouri, who have 

 gpent their lives in the mountains, and speak many Indian lan- 

 guages, I have been able to verify the present existence of the 

 same system of relationship in the following additional nations : 

 the Quappas, Osage, Sawk and Fox, Assinaboines, Mandan, and 

 Sheycnne, who are Dakotans; the Kaskaskias, Piankashaws, 

 Weaws, Miamis, Kikapoos, Menomines,. and Blackfeet, who arc 

 Algonquins ; the Arickarees, who are Pawnians ; che Upsarokas 

 or Crows, and the Gros- Ventres, whom I am not, at present, able 



