SWANTON] SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 191 
Our earlier data regarding the moiety and clan divisions consists 
of a short but important sketch prepared for Henry R. School- 
craft by a United States Indian agent from information obtained 
from several old Chickasaw chiefs shortly after the period of their 
emigration from Mississippi,’° a list of Chickasaw clans and 
phratries collected by the Rey. Charles C. Copeland, missionary 
among the Chickasaw, incorporated into Lewis H. Morgan’s Ancient 
Society,** and a second contained in a manuscript note to George 
Gibbs’s Chickasaw vocabulary, collected for the Bureau of American 
Kthnology. This last, along with a reproduction of Morgan’s list, 
was published by Dr. A. S. Gatschet in his Migration Legend of 
the Creek Indians.** 
The most important modern contribution to this subject has been 
made by Prof. Frank G. Speck in a short article entitled “ Notes on 
Chickasaw Ethnology and Folk-Lore,” published in the Journal of 
American Folk-Lore.** This embraces information obtained prin- 
cipally from a Chickasaw named Ca’bitci encountered by Professor 
Speck while engaged in ethnological work among the Yuchi in 1904 
and 1905. It contains valuable material which it seems impossible to 
duplicate out of the memories of the Chickasaw now living. 
As it will be necessary to piece together all of this data and that 
which I collected myself in 1915, 1919, and 1924, it will be best to 
incorporate these original narratives entire so that they may be 
constantly before the reader for consultation. 
Following is the account furnished by Schoolcraft’s informant : 
The government of the Chickasaws, until they moved to the west of the 
Mississippi, had a king, whom they called Minko, and there is a clan or family 
by that name, that the king is taken from. The king is hereditary through 
the female side. They then had chiefs*out of different families or clans. 
The highest clan next to the Minko is the Sho-wa. The next chief to the 
king is out of their clan. The next is Co-ish-to, second chief out of this clan. 
The next is Oush-peh-ne. The next is Min-ne; and the lowest clan is called 
Hus-con-na. Runners and waiters are taken from this family. When the 
chiefs thought it necessary to hold a council, they went to the king, and 
requested him to call a council. He would then send one of his runners out 
to inform the people that a council would be held at such a time and place. 
When they convened the king would take his seat. The runners then placed 
each chief in his proper place. All the talking and business was done by the 
chiefs. If they passed a law they informed the king of it. If he consented 
to it it was a law; if he refused, the chiefs could make it a law if every chief 
was in favor of it. If one chief refused to give his consent the law was lost. 
%° Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, vol. 1, p. 311. 
* Ancient Society, New York, 1878, p. 163. 
* Philadelphia, 1884, vol. 1, p. 97. 
88 Jour. Am, Folk-Lore, vol. xx, pp. 50-58. 
