238 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



American Indians, and which is not wholly true of other portions of them, they 

 give vent to injured feelings, as well as physical pain, by crying, a practice shared 

 equally by the males and females, and by the old as well as the young. 1 



The Kutchin mothers often nurse their children until they are four and five 

 years old. Mrs. Murray mentioned one instance that came under her observation, 

 of a boy ten years old who still nursed from his mother. She knew the woman 

 and saw her often at the Fort. He was an only child, and the only one she ever 

 had, and although well enough grown to go out to hunt with the bow and arrow, 

 he still continued the practice. The ability of this Indian mother thus to nurse 

 her child continuously for ten years is quite remarkable. Mrs. Murray mentioned 

 another case of a Kutchin mother who nursed her youngest child until it was six 

 years old ; and still another who nursed two of her children of different ages at the 

 same time. They usually wean them at the age of three or four years, if no other 

 children are born in the mean time. I have observed the same practice to some 

 extent both amongst the Mississippi and the Missouri nations. One case in parti- 

 cular occurs to me which I noticed on the Sawk and Fox reservation in Kansas. 

 It was that of a boy about six years old who nursed from his mother standing on 

 his feet, while she sat upon a stool conversing with the writer through an inter- 

 preter. 



Polygamy prevails among them, and also a special form of it which is very general 

 in the Ganowanian family, namely: when a man marries the oldest of several sisters 

 he is entitled by custom to each and all of the remaining sisters as wives, as soon 

 as they severally attain a marriageable age. It is an optional right which he may 

 enforce or wave. This custom will be again referred to". I have found it a recog- 

 nized usage amongst the greater portion of the nations represented in the table. 

 Mr. Murray spoke very favorably of the intelligence of the Kutchin Indians, but 

 less favorably of their honesty. They call themselves Ku-tcliin' , pronounced nearly 

 Koo-chiri , sometimes Koo-tcha! '. Its signification he was unable to give. They 

 number about five thousand. 



The system of relationship of this nation was furnished by W. L. Herdisty, Esq., 

 of Fort Liard, one of the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. Although fami- 

 liar with their language, he misconceived, in some respects, the plan of the schedule, 

 and translated a number of the questions from English into Kutchin. But fortu- 



1 It is generally believed that the American Indians are able to restrain their emotions to a degree 

 unknown amongst other peoples. It is true in ordinary cases of pain or suffering; but under the 

 influence of strong excitement all of these restraints give way, and nature vindicates herself. I re- 

 member one instance in point. In the year 1862, in the Blackfoot country, I witnessed the meeting 

 between a Blackfoot mother and her daughter, the latter recovered after twenty years of separation. 

 The child was taken captive by the Crows, at the age of seven years, among whom she had grown 

 up, and was then the wife of Robert Meldrum, by whom her parentage was ascertained, and the 

 knowledge of it preserved. It was not a sudden revelation to the mother of the existence of her lost 

 daughter, for that had been made known to her the year previous, but it was an expected meeting. 

 The mother was an aged and shrivelled woman ; but on receiving her daughter the tears streamed 

 down her face abundantly, and it was some hours before she was sufficiently composed for quiet 

 conversation. 



