452 



FAMILY 



[b. a. e. 



their own, the children of such unions 

 are bound in a measure to the clan or 

 exogamic kinship group of their fathers. 

 This is a principle so well established 

 that the chief matron of the paternal clan 

 or exogamic kinsliip might oblige these 

 offspring of diverse households (as many 

 as might suffice) to go to war in fulfil- 

 ment of their obligation, as seemed good 

 to her; or she might stop them if they 

 wished to undertake a war which was 

 not, from its exisediency, pleasing to her 

 and her advisers. Therefore this chief 

 matron, having decided that the time was 

 at hand "to raise again the fallen tree" 

 or "to put back on the vacant mat" one 

 of the clan whom death removed, would 

 inform one of the children whose fathers 

 were her clansmen, their Itonthonni' , that 

 it was her desire that he form and lead 

 a war party against their enemies for the 

 purpose of securing a prisoner or a scalp 

 for the purpose named. The person whom 

 she selected was one judged most capable 

 of executing her commission. This was 

 soon accomplished. She enforced and 

 confirmed this commission with a belt of 

 wampum. So powerful was this chief 

 matron of a clan that when the council 

 chiefs did not favor the designs of certain 

 ambitious war chiefs in raising levies for 

 military purposes, fearing that they might 

 injure the best interests of the tribe, one 

 of the surest methods they might employ 

 to frustrate these enterprises was to win 

 the chief matrons of the clans whose 

 clansmen were the fathers of the recruits 

 from the other clans, for these chief 

 matrons had only to interpose their influ- 

 ence and authority to bring to naught 

 the best concerted designs and enterprises 

 of these ambitious war chiefs. This is 

 ample evidence that these women had 

 an influence in some degree exceeding 

 that of the council of the ancients and 

 tribal chiefs. 



In the blood feud the paternal kin did 

 not interfere except by counsel; but to 

 avenge the death of a clansman of their 

 father was an obligation. Outlaws were 

 denied family and tribal rights. The re- 

 nunciation of clan kinship entailed the 

 loss of every right and immunity inhering 

 in kinship. The fundamental concept in 

 the organic structure of the family with 

 its rights, immunities, and obligations is 

 that of protection. To exercise the right 

 of feud was lawful only to avenge the 

 guilty murder of a clansman. 



The clan or family was made useful by 

 the tribe as a police organization, through 

 which control was exercised over lawless 

 men who otherwise were beyond re- 

 straint. Every clan had jurisdiction over 

 the lives and property of its members, 

 even to the taking of life for cause. 



The mutual obligations of kindred 

 subsist between persons who can act for 



themselves; but there are duties of pro- 

 tection by these toward those who can 

 not act for themselves for any reason 

 whatever, for it is a principle of human- 

 ity that they who are legally independ- 

 ent should protect those who are legally 

 dependent. The modern law of guard- 

 ianship of minors and imbeciles is evi- 

 dently but a survival and extension of 

 this obligation of protection in the primi- 

 tive family and clan. 



Speaking generally of the tribes of the 

 N. W. coast, Swanton ( Am. Anthrop. , n. s., 

 vii, no. 4, 1905) says that in addition to 

 the "husband, wife, and children, a 

 household was often increased by a num- 

 _ ber of relations who lived with the house 

 ' owner on almost equal terms, several 

 poor relations or proteges who acted as 

 servants, and on the n. Pacific coast as 

 many slaves as the house owner could 

 afford or was aljle to capture." 



In tribes where a clan or gentile organi- 

 zation similar to that of the Iroquoian and 

 the Muskhogean tribes does not exist, it 

 is known that the incest groups on the 

 maternal and the paternal sides are largely 

 determined by the system of relation- 

 ships, which fixes the position and status 

 of every person within an indefinite 

 group, and the incest group is reckoned 

 from each propositus. That is to say, 

 marriage and cohabitation may not sub- 

 sist between persons related to each other 

 within prescribed limits on both the ma- 

 ternal and paternal sides, although kin- 

 ship may be recognized as extending 

 beyond the prescribed limit. Among the 

 Klamath these relationships are defined 

 by reciprocal terms defining the relation 

 rather than the persons, just as the term 

 "cousin" is employed between cousins. 

 In speaking of the fierce, turbulent, 

 and cruel Athapascan tribes of the valley 

 of the Yukon, Kirkby (Smithson. Rep. 

 1864, 1865), says: "There is, however, 

 another division among them, of a more 

 interesting and important character than 

 that of the tribes just mentioned. Irre- 

 spective of tribe they are divided into 

 three classes, termed, respectively, Chit-sa, 

 Nate-sa, and Tanges-at-sa, faintly repre- 

 senting the aristocracy, the middle classes, 

 and the poorer orders of civilized nations, 

 the former being the most wealthy and the 

 latter the poorest. In one respect, how- 

 ever, they greatly differ, it being the rule 

 for a man not to marry in his own, but to 

 take a wife from either of the other 

 classes. A Chit-sa gentleman will marry 

 a Tanges-at-sa peasant without the least 

 feeling infra dig The offspring in every 

 case belong to the class of the mother. 

 This arrangement has had a most bene- 

 ficial effect in allaying the deadly feuds 

 formerly so frequent among them." As 

 no further data are given, it is impossible 

 to say what, if any, was the internal 



