i8o 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



in a singular religious antagonism to them in the minds of these 

 Christian converts. The teachings of Deganawida and Handsome 

 Lake, thus erroneously coupled, were lightly repudiated as the futile 

 expression of rank heathenism. But these perverted views of the 

 institutions of the League are most tenaciously held, the tenacity vary- 

 ing usually in inverse ratio to the probability of their truth. The 

 Indians boast several clans which could not have been in existence at 



Fig. 157. — Chief Prudent Sioni, a Huron 

 (Iroquoian) of La Jeune Lorette, near 

 Quebec, Canada. 



the date oi the founding of the League, although they maintain that 

 these units belong to the earliest League organization. Such are the 

 Onondaga {rotisennake "tc') and the Oneida (rotinenyote' ^ronno"') 

 clans. So unreal was the basis for these two units that the calumet 

 was made the clan blazon of the Onondaga, when in fact it belongs 

 to the Oneida tribe. I here differentiate clan from tribe. 



On the Grand River Grant, among the Six Nations of the Iroquois 

 dwelling there, I devoted my researches to the translation and elucida- 

 tion of a number of brief myths, recorded in former years, relating 



