SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



not at any time exceed 20,000 people. They lived in 

 the great forests of New York. A long period elapsed 

 after their settlement in New York before the confederacy 

 was formed. During this time they made common cause 

 against tin ir < -in -mies and experienced the advantages of 

 cooperation both for aggression and defense. They were 

 first discovered by white men in 1608 and about the year 

 1675 attained the culminating point of their power and 

 influence. 11 



While this confederation of Indian tribes was ostensi- 

 bly for purposes of mutual protection, there was a deeper 

 basis for it in the bond of kin. The real tie was the ex- 

 istence of certain clans which the tribes had in common. 

 All members of the same clan, whether Mohawks, 

 Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, or Senecas, were brothers 

 and sisters to each other in virtue of their descent from 

 the same common ancestor. Three clans, the Wolf, Bear, 

 and Turtle, were common to the five tribes. Between 

 the separated parts of each clan, although its members 

 spoke different dialects of the same language, there ex- 

 isted a fraternal connection which linked the nations to- 

 gether with indissoluble bonds. In the estimation of an 

 Iroquois Indian every member of his clan in whatever 

 tribe, was as certainly a kinsman as his brother. This 

 system of cross-relationship between persons of the 

 same clan in different tribes is still preserved and recog- 

 nized among the Iroquois in all its old force. Dissen- 

 sions between component tribes in the confederacy were 

 thus guarded against, for if the Mohawks fell upon the 

 Oneidas, since the Bear clan was common to both tribes, 

 there would be conflict between brother kinsmen, an un 

 thinkable situation in the mind of primitive man. 



i Morg;u . ch. v, pt. ii. 



