EADiN] SOCIAL, ORGANIZATION SPECIFIC CLANS 209 



From these facts it is quite clear that, as far as the ThunderbLrd 

 clan is concerned, the prevailing belief as to the relation of the mem- 

 bers of the clan to the clan ancestor is but feebly substantiated by 

 the origin myths. 



As mentioned before, the chief of the tribe was selected from the 

 Thunderbird clan, although the selection was apparently restricted 

 to certain families. The functions of the chief of the tribe were con- 

 nected with peace. He could not lead a war party, although, accord- 

 ing to some, he could accompany one. His lodge stood either in the 

 center of the village or at the south end, according to which of the 

 two descriptions one cares to accept, and contained a sacred fire- 

 place, around which only members of the Thunderbird clan could 

 sit. This lodge was an asylum for all wrongdoers. No one could be 

 killed there, and a prisoner who succeeded in makmg his escape to it 

 was spared. Even a dog destined for a sacrifice at the war-bundle 

 feast was freed if he took refuge in it. The Thunderbu-d chief always 

 acted as mtercessor between wrongdoers and their avengers. Even 

 in so extreme a case as the murder of a clansman, he would always 

 attempt a reconciliatioji by which the life of the murderer might be 

 spared. If necessary, the chief would mortify himself, and with 

 skewers mserted m his back have himself led through the village to 

 the home of the nearest kinspeople of the murdered person. 



The chief seems to have had some other miscellaneous fimctions, 

 the most im])ortant of which was, perhaps, his right to prevent an 

 unauthorized war party to depart from the village. If he, as an 

 older man and guardian of peace and the best interests of the tribe, 

 felt that a war party was taking too many risks, he would take his 

 pipe and place it across the path of the one contemplathig an unwar- 

 ranted expedition and thus signify his disapproval. If then the war 

 party chose to go, any mishap was directly chargeable to the leader 

 who disobeyed. Should anyone be killed, the leader was regarded 

 almost in the same light as a willful murderer, and the kinsmen of 

 the deceased warrior could demand redress. 



Our main informant for the Thunderbird clan simimarized the 

 functions as follows: 



The rhief is rhosen from one of the "greater" Thunderbird clans ' and must be a 

 man of well-balanced temper, not easily provoked, and of good habits. The one 

 sacred object he possesses is his pipe. He must be a peacemaker and love all the 

 people in the tribe, the little children included. 



If he saw a man, woman, or child passing by, he was to call them in and give them 

 food to eat, for they were his brothers and sisters. All the relatives he has are to look 

 after his possessions and keep him well supplied, for he was supposed to gi^•e away 

 things constantly. If any person came to borrow some object from him, he would tell 



1 He divided the Thunderbird clans into two groups, the real Tliunderlnrd and the Warrior clans. This 

 latter lie insisted was identical with the thunderbirds who caused the rain and who were quite different 

 from the other thonderbird^s. 



