Bureau of American Ethnology 391 



and while often singularly elaborate in plan and execution, 

 rests on a simple and definite basis; the primary purpose of 

 all Indian law is to prevent or settle dispute, and thus to 

 promote peace and the welfare of the group. ^ 



When the bureau was instituted Director Powell gave 

 careful attention to the subject of marriage, and ascertained 

 that in America the forms known as endogamy and exogamy 

 are simply two aspects of the same custom. In most tribes 

 the laws relating to marriage are strict, and are regulated 

 and enforced with prohibitions ; and, while the regulations 

 vary, it is a generally observed law that a man may not 

 marry in his own clan, but must marry in his own tribe, when 

 the marriage is commonly arranged by the council ; so that 

 the clan is exogamous, while the tribe is endogamous. Ac- 

 cordingly, so far as the American Indians are concerned, 

 endogamy and exogamy are correlative terms, useful in de- 

 scription, but not expressing distinct stages in development. 

 It was found that the regulations concerning marriage in the 

 different tribes tend toward complexity, and that various de- 

 vices are adopted to prevent them from becoming unduly 

 onerous and inimical to tribal welfare : thus a prohibited mar- 

 riage may be effected through elopement when, if the elopers 

 are able to avoid vengeance for some period, the offense is 

 condoned, and the couple eventually join the proper clan or 

 gens ; in some cases provision is made for settling rival 

 claims to the hand of a woman by wager of battle ; and in 

 some cases there are regulations relating to marriage by cap- 

 ture, in which the ordinary prohibition is suspended. A result 

 of the researches relatinof to marriao-e amonof the Indians is 

 the discovery that the blending of clans, the union of gentes, 

 the confederation of tribes, and in general the combination 



1" Wyandot Government," in First Aiimial Bureau of Ethnology, 1S84, page Ivii. "On 

 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1881, Regimentation," Fifteenth Annual Report of 

 pages S7~69- Third Annual Report of the the Bureauof Ethnology, i897,pagesciv-cxxi. 



