SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93O 



203 



Deganawida and Hiawatha for the purpose of establishing a state of 

 peace and harmony among men which through the forms of law 

 should cause the shedding of human blood to cease. 



The organic units of an Iroquoian tribe were the Ohwachira, the 

 Clan, and the Phratry or Sisterhood of Clans ; two or more Ohwachira 

 formed a Clan; one or more Clans formed a Phratry or Sisterhood of 

 Clans ; and two Phratries or Sisterhoods of Clans constituted the tribe. 

 The organic units of the League were Phratries of tribes ; two Phra- 

 tries of tribes constituted the League. The definition of these several 



f 



Fig. 178. — Chief Simeon Gibson, World War Veteran, Cayuga Seneca 

 Iroquois, Grand River Reservation, Canada. 



organic units have come down to us in general terms, although they 

 should be specifically defined to give a full comprehension of their 

 structure. This deeper study of these units was a part of the writer's 

 task this season. 



It is among these people that one still finds today the very few 

 persons who retain a precarious hold on the fragmentary knowledge 

 of the complex institutions of the League of the Iroquois. And because 

 of the paucity and the dubiousness of this knowledge it is fast pass- 

 ing out of the thinking of the native general public. 



