MORGAN.) CONFEDERACY FOUNDED ON KINSHIP. 33 
council than a smaller. But in this case it gave no additional power, 
because the sachems of each tribe had an equal voice in forming a decision, 
and a negative upon the others. When in council they agreed by tribes, 
and unanimity in opinion was essential to every public act. The Onon- 
dagas were made “ Keepers of the Wampum,” and ‘“ Keepers of the Coun- 
cil Brand,” the Mohawks “ Receivers of Tribute” from subjugated tribes, 
and the Senecas ‘“‘ Keepers of the Door” of the Long House. These and 
some other similar provisions were made for the common advantage. 
The cohesive principle of the confederacy did not spring exclusively 
from the benefits of an alliance for mutual protection, but had a deeper 
foundation in the bond of kin. The confederacy rested upon the tribes 
ostensibly, but primarily upon common gentes. All the members of the 
same gens, whether Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, or Senecas, 
-were brothers and sisters to each other in virtue of their descent from the 
same common ancestor, and they recognized each other as such with the 
fullest cordiality. When they met, the first inquiry was the name of each 
other’s gens, and next the immediate pedigree of their respective sachems ; 
after which they were usually able to find, under their peculiar system of 
consanguinity*, the relationship in which they stood to each other. Three 
of the gentes—namely, the Wolf, Bear, and Turtle—were common to the 
five tribes; these and three others were common to three tribes. In effect, 
the Wolf gens, through the division of an original tribe into five, was now 
in five divisions, one of which was in each tribe. It was the same with the 
Bear and the Turtle gentes. The Deer, Snipe, and Hawk gentes were 
common to the Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas. Between the separated 
parts of each gens, although its members spoke different dialects of the 
same language, there existed a fraternal connection which linked the nations 
together with indissoluble bonds. When the Mohawk of the Wolf gens 
recognized an Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, or Seneca of the same gens as a 
brother, and when the members of the other divided gentes did the same, 
* The children of brothers are themselves brothers and sisters to each other; the children of the 
latter were also brothers and sisters, and so downwards indefinitely. The children and descendants of 
sisters are the same. The children of a brother and sister are cousins; the children of the latter are 
cousins, and so downwards indefinitely. A knowledge of the relationships to each other of the mem- 
bers of the same gens is never lost. 
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