HEWITT] INTRODUCTION 459 



exterminated the Mohawk, who since, however, had partially re- 

 covered from that defeat. 



The Onondaga dwelling on the Grand River Grant (reservation), 

 Ontario, Canada, have nine clans, namely: The Wolf, the Snapping 

 Turtle, the Bear, the Deer, the Eel, the Beaver, the Sharp-shinned 

 JIawk (erroneously Ball), the Plover (Snipe), and the Pigeon Hawk 

 clans. The Wolf, the Beaver, the Plover, the Sharp-shinned Hawk, 

 the Pigeon Hawk, and the Snapping Turtle clans have each only 

 one Federal chiefship; the Beaver and the Eel clans have each two 

 Federal chiefships; while the Deer clan has three. The reason for 

 this marked difference in the rjuotas of Federal chiefships belonging to 

 the several clans is not definitely known, but it may be due to the 

 adoption of alien groups of persons who already possessed chiefship 

 titles. 



In Federal, ceremonial, and social assemblies the Onondaga, by 

 right of membership therein, take their places with the tribal phratry 

 of the "Three Brothers," of which the Mohawk and the Seneca are 

 the two other members; but in the Federal Council, in which sit the 

 Federal representatives of all the five (latterly six) Iroquois tribes, 

 the Onondaga tribe itself constitutes, in function at least, a tribal 

 phratry, while the Mohawk and the Seneca together form a second, 

 and the Oneida and the Cayuga originally, and the Tuscarora 

 latterly, a third tribal phratry. 



The Federal Council is organized on the basis of these three tribal 

 phratries. Functions of the Onondaga phratry in the Federal Council 

 are in many respects similar to those of a judge holding court with 

 a jury. These three phratries in session in council occupy fixed or 

 prescribed positions with relation to an actual or symbolic council 

 fire. On one side of this fire are seated the Federal representatives 

 of the phartries of the Three Brothers. On the opposite side are 

 seated the phratry of the Yoimger Brothers. 



A question coming before the Federal Council is discussed first 

 by the phratry of the "Three Brothers," namely, first by the 

 Mohawk by themselves and then by the Seneca by themselves; 

 then the matter is returned to the Mohawk, who then refer it across 

 the actual or symbolic fire to the Oneida, who in turn discuss it by 

 themselves and then refer it to the Cayuga, who discuss it by them- 

 selves, and latterly, to the Tuscarora, who discuss it by themselves, 

 and who then refer the matter back to the speaker of the Oneida, 

 who refers it back across the fire to the Mohawk speaker, who refers 

 it in turn to the Onondaga phratry for confirmation or rejection, or, 

 in case of error, returns it for correction to the Mohawk speaker for 

 resubmission for correction. The confirmation of a common opinion 

 or of one among two or more dift'erent opinions submitted by the 

 discussing phratries by the Onondaga makes that the decree of the 



