[sapir] social organization OF THE WEST COAST TRIBES 369 



munity, though of lesser importance than the dominant clan. The 

 legends of the Indians themselves clearly indicate that such whole or 

 partial clan movements have frequently taken place. Many of the 

 names of the clans themselves plainly indicate their local origin. Thus, 

 the Kiksadi are a Raven clan that are found represented in several 

 Tlingit tribes, such as the Sanya, the Stikine people, and the Sitka 

 Indians. The name means nothing more than People-of-the-Island- 

 Kiks and clearly implies that the clan was, to begin with, at home in 

 a particular locality and gradually became distributed over a large 

 area by various movements of population. The force of tradition 

 would always be strong enough to keep up the old clan crests and 

 other clan privileges, wherever the clansmen moved. In course of 

 time the appearance is attained of a clan distribution which has 

 nothing to do with local communities as such. 



Very similar conditions prevail among the Haida Indians. Here 

 again we have two main phratries, subdivided into a large number of 

 clans. As among the Tlingit, the Haida phratries are exogamous and 

 descent in them is reckoned through the female line. One of them is 

 termed Raven, though, curiously enough, the main crest of this phratry 

 is not the raven but the killer-whale. The opposite phratry is termed 

 Eagle, this animal being the chief crest of the phratry. Among the 

 Haida, as among the Tlingit, the native legends indicate that the clans 

 were originally confined to certain definite localities, but that in 

 course of time the clansmen moved about in various ways until now, 

 when_ they are represented in a number of villages. One concrete 

 instance will serve to illustrate the actual state of afïairs. In the town 

 of Skidegate there were represented in earlier times three distinct 

 Eagle clans, and three distinct Raven clans, each of these six 

 clans occupying its own houses. Of the six clans the dominant one 

 was an Eagle clan known as People-of-the-great-house, claiming as 

 their crests the Raven (this in spite of the fact that they do not 

 belong to the Raven phratry), a supernatural being known as 

 wdsgo, the dog-fish, the weasel, the eagle, the sculpin, and the 

 halibut. Presumably this clan formed the original nucleus of the 

 present town of Skidegate about which the other clans in course of 

 time clustered. The Haida clan names are generally either local 

 in character, like most of the Tlingit names, or of an honorific 

 character, like the one that we have just quoted. 



The Tsimshian are organized similarly to the Tlingit and Haida, 

 except that their clans are grouped into four phratries: the Raven, 

 Eagle, Wolf, and Grizzly Bear. 



Among the southern Kwakiutl also the single tribes are sub- 

 divided into a number of clans, each of which, there is reason to believe 



