CREA ele sha age ele 
GENS AND PHRATRY OF THE DAKOTA. 
THE GENS. 
In the Dakota Nation the man is the head of the family; the woman 
was not considered worthy of honor. No Dakota woman ever aspired to 
be a chief. he chieftainship descended from the father to his sons, the 
eldest son taking the precedence. But in the making up of the gens the 
woman was an equal factor with the man. Thus a child counts his father’s 
brothers all fathers, and his father’s sisters all aunts; while his mother’s 
sisters are all mothers, and his mother’s brothers are only uncles. Hence, 
a man’s brother’s children are counted as his own children, and his sister’s 
children are nephews and nieces. On the other hand, a woman’s sister’s 
children are counted by her as children, while her brother’s children are 
' These same distinctions are carried down through 
nephews and nieces. 
the generations. In this circle intermarriages are not allowed by Dakota 
custom. This is the gens, but there is lacking the totem to bind them to- 
gether. The real foundation tor the totemic system exists among the Da- 
kota as well as the Iroquois, in the names of men often being taken from 
mythical animals, but the system was never carried to perfection. Some- 
times indeed a village was called through generations after the chief of the 
clan, as Black Dog’s, Little Crow’s, ete. 
THE PHRATRY. 
Among the eastern Dakota the Phratry was never a permanent organi- 
zation, but resorted to on special occasions and for various purposes, such 
as war or buffalo hunting. 
THE TIYOTIPI. 
The exponent of the Phratry was the “'Tiyotipi” or Soldiers’ Lodge. 
Its meaning is the ‘‘ Lodge of Lodges.” There were placed the bundles of 
black and red sticks of the soldiers. There the soldiers gathered to talk 
and smoke and feast. There the laws of the encampment were enacted, 
1See Kinship System of the Omaha in 3d Ann. Rept. of the Director, Bur. Eth., pp. 252-258.—.. 0 .p. 
195 
