2 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 



of distinction ; but, before pointing them out, I 

 shall indicate a few prominent characteristics, 

 which, faintly or distinctly, mark the whole in com- 

 mon. 



All are alike a race of hunters, sustaining life 

 wholly, or in part, by the fruits of the chase. Each 

 family is split into tribes ; and these tribes, by the 

 exigencies of the hunter life, are again divided 

 into sub-tribes, bands, or villages, often scattered 

 far asunder, over a wide extent of wilderness. 

 Unhappily for the strength and harmony of the 

 Indian race, each tribe is prone to regard itself, 

 not as the member of a great whole, but as a sov- 

 ereign and independent nation, often arrogating to 

 itself an importance superior to all the rest of man- 

 kind ; ^ and the warrior whose petty horde might 

 muster a few scores of half-starved fighting men, 

 strikes his hand upon his heart, and exclaims, in 

 all the pride of patriotism, " I am a Menomoner 



In an Indian community, each man is his own 

 master. He abhors restraint, and owns no other au- 

 thority than his own capricious will ; and yet this 

 wild notion of liberty is not inconsistent with certain 

 gradations of rank and influence. Each tribe has 

 its sachem, or civil chief, whose oflice is in a man- 

 ner hereditary, and, among many, though by no 

 means among all tribes, descends in the female 

 line ; so that the brother of the incumbent, or the 

 son of his sister, and not his own son, is the right- 



1 Many Indian tribes bear names which in their dialect signify men, 

 indicating that the cliaracter belongs, par excellence, to them. Sometimes 

 the word was used by itself, and sometimes an adjective was joined with 

 it, as original men, men surpassing all others. 



