Hi INTRODUCTION. 



This system of clanship, with the rule of descent usu- 

 ally belonging to it, was of very wide prevalence. Indeed, 

 it is more than probable that close observation would 

 have detected it in every tribe east of the Mississippi ; 

 while there is positive evidence of its existence in by far 

 the greater number. It is found also among the Dah- 

 cotah and other tribes west of the Mississippi ; and there 

 is reason to believe it universally prevalent as far as the 

 Rocky Mountains, and even beyond them. The fact that 

 with most of these hordes there is little property worth 

 transmission, and that the most influential becomes chief, 

 with little regard to inheritance, has blinded casual ob- 

 servers to the existence of this curious system. 



It was found in full development among the Creeks, 

 Choctaws, Cherokees, and other Southern tribes, includ- 

 ing that remarkable people, the Natchez, who, judged by 

 their religious and political institutions, seem a detached 

 offshoot of the Toltec family. It is no less conspicuous 

 among the roving Algonquins of the extreme North, 

 where the number of totems is almost countless. Every- 

 where it formed the foundation of the polity of all the 

 tribes, where a polity could be said to exist. 



The Franciscans and Jesuits, close students of the 

 languages and superstitions of the Indians, were by no 

 means so zealous to analyze their organization and gov- 

 ernment. In the middle of the seventeenth century the 

 Hurons as a nation had ceased to exist, and their politi- 

 cal portraiture, as handed down to us, is careless and un- 

 finished. Yet some decisive features are plainly shown. 

 The Huron nation was a confederacy of four distinct con- 

 tiguous nations, afterwards increased to five by the addi- 

 tion of the Tionnontates ; — it was divided into clans ; — 

 it was governed by chiefs, whose office was hereditary 

 through the female ; — the power of these chiefs, though 



