140 SYSTEMS OP CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



her male descendants would be transferred to the tribes of their respective mothers. 

 Modifications of this form of the tribe may have existed, but this is the substance 

 of the institution. 



Each tribe thus becomes territorially coextensive with the nation, since they were 

 not separated into independent communities. 1 For the reason, therefore, that there 

 are several tribes of the Senecas, they cannot be called collectively the Seneca tribe ; 

 but inasmuch as they all speak the same dialect and are under one political organi- 

 zation, there is a manifest propriety in calling them the Seneca nation. Among 

 the nations whose institutions were the most developed, the office of sachem or chief 

 was hereditary in the female line. Each tribe had the right to furnish its own civil 

 ruler, and consequently the office could never pass out of the tribe. One singular 

 result of this institution relating to the descent of official dignities was the perpetual 

 disinheritance of the sons of sachems. As father and son were necessarily of dif- 

 ferent tribes, the son could not succeed to his father's office. It passed to the 

 sachem's brother, who was of the same tribe, or to one of the sons of one of his 

 sisters, who was also of the same tribe, the choice between them being determined 

 by election. This was the rule among the Iroquois, among a portion of the 

 Algonkin nations, and also among the Aztecs. In a number of Indian nations 

 descent is now limited to the male line, with the same prohibition of intermarriage 

 in the tribe, and the son succeeds to the father's office. There are reasons for 

 believing that this is an innovation upon the ancient custom, and that descent in 

 the female line was once universal in the Ganowanian family. 



The aboriginal inhabitants of North America, when discovered, were divided into 

 two great classes, or were found in two dissimilar conditions ; each of which 

 represented a distinct mode of life. The first and lowest condition was that of the 

 Roving Indians, who lived chiefly upon fish, and also upon game. They were 

 entirely ignorant of agriculture. Each nation inhabited a particular area which 

 they defended as their home country ; but roamed through it without being sta- 

 tionary in any locality. They spent a part of the year at their fishing encamp- 

 ments, and the remainder in the mountains, or in the "forest districts most favora- 

 ble for game. Of this class the Athapascans, west of Hudson's Bay, the nations of 

 the valley of the Columbia, the Blackfeet, Shoshonees, Crees, Assiniboines, and 

 Dakotas, and the Great Lake and Missouri nations are examples. The second and 

 highest condition was that of the Village Indians, who were stationary in villages, 

 arid depended exclusively upon agriculture for subsistence. They lived in com- 



1 Among the nations, besifles the Iroquois, who are subdivided into tribes, are the Wyandotes, 

 Winnebagoes, Otoes, Kaws, Osages, lowas, Omahas, Punkas, Cherokees, Creeks, Choetas, Chickasas, 

 Ojibwas, Otawas, Potawattamies, Sauks and Foxes, Menominies, Miamas, Shawnees, Delawares, 

 Mohegans, Munsees, Shoshonees, Comanches, the Village Indians of New Mexico, the Aztecs, and 

 some other ancient Mexican nations. Some of the Algonkin find Dakotan nations have lost the tribal 

 organization, which presumptively they once possessed, as the Crees and the Dakotas proper. It is not 

 found among the Athapascas, nor amongst the nations in the valley of the Columbia, although it is said 

 to prevail amongst the nations of the northwest coast. In addition to the Iroquois tribes above men- 

 tioned, the following may be named : Crane, Duck, Loon, Turkey, Musk-rat, Sable, Pike, Sturgeon, 

 Carp, Buffalo, Elk, Reindeer, Eagle, Hare, Babbit, and Snake. 



