MooMEY) CLAN SYSTEM AND LOCAL DIVISIONS 227 



SOCIOLOGY OF THE KIOWA 



ABSENCE OF THE CLAN SYSTEM 



The clan system does not exist among the Kiowa, and there is no 

 evidence that they have ever had it. This may be a surprise to those 

 disciples of Morgan who have assumed that because the system is 

 found among the eastern tribes and certain tribes of the southwest and 

 extreme northwest it is therefore universal and a necessary factor in 

 tribal development. It is by no means universal, and it is doubtful if 

 it exists among the Athapascan tribes of British America, the tribes 

 of the Columbia region, Oregon, or California, or any of the recognized 

 Shoshonean stock with the exception of the Hopi. The Cheyenne 

 and Sioux of the plains seem to kuow as little of it as do the Kiowa. 

 Clark, in his "Indian Sign Language," says: "I cannot help feeling that 

 Mr Morgan's careful study of the form of government of the Iroquois 

 league colored his writings in regard to all other Indians. Certain it is 

 that no trace now exists of such organization among many of the plains 

 tribes." In another place he states that among the majority of the 

 plains tribes, and perhaps the western Indians generally, judgiug from 

 their laws of inheritance and marriage customs, the system never did 

 exist (Clark, 5). Gatschet, in his great work on the Klamath lan- 

 guage, declares that the Klamath Indians of Oregon are absolutely igno- 

 rant of the clan system, while Hale, in the " Iroquois Book of Eites," 

 takes the ground that the system is simply an artificial invention, 

 adopted for convenience and spreading from various local centers. In 

 sui^port of the idea that it is artificial rather than natural he points 

 out the fact that it is not found among tlie Polynesian tribes, who are 

 on about the same plane of development as our Indians [Hale, 1). 

 In the United States the clan system seems to be found more particu- 

 larly among the agricultural tribes. 



LOCAL DIVISIONS 



Before they were confined to the reservation the Kiowa were grouped 

 into two general local divisions, known, respectively, as T^o-khldliyiq}, 

 "cold men" (i. e., men of the cold, or northern, country), and Givd- 

 halego, from the Comanche name Kwahadi or Kwiihari. These terms 

 were practically equivalent to "northern" and "southern," the former 

 ranging chiefly along Arkansas river and the Kansas frontier, while 

 the latter, as the name indicates, associated more with the Kwahadi 

 Comanche of the region of the Staked plain. As they were merely 

 temporary local designations and not proper baud or gentile names, 

 they have now ceased to be of any practical importance. 



STJBTEIBBS 



The Kiowa have six recognized divisions or subtribes, including the 

 Apache, who form a component part of the Kiowa tribal circle. The 

 extinct K'uato formerly made a seventh, but their position in the circle 



