682 STUDY FROM THE OMAHA TRIBE : IMPORT OF THE TOTEM. 



the Bear made up the Bear society; those to whom the Thunder or 

 Water beings had come formed the Thunder or the Pebble society. The 

 membership came from every kinship group in the tribe. Blood relation- 

 ship was ignored, the bond of union being a common right in a common 

 vision. These brotherhoods gradually develojied a classified member- 

 ship with initiatory rites, rituals, and officials set apart to conduct the 

 ceremonials. 



The function of the totem in the societies was intermediate between 

 that of the individual totem aud the totem in its final social office, where 

 it i)resided over an artificial structure, in which natural conditions were 

 in part overruled and the people inevitably bound together. In some 

 of the tribes of the linguistic group to which the Omahas belong, where 

 the political structure of the gens is apparently weak and undeveloped, 

 the Eeligious societies exist and are powerful in their organization. 

 This fact, with other evidence which can not be detailed here owing to 

 its comj)lex nature, together Avith the similarity traceable between the 

 rituals and ceremonies of these Religious societies and those incident 

 to the inauguration of gentile and tribal officers, makes it seem proba- 

 ble that the training and experience derived from the working of these 

 earlier societies had taught the leaders among the Omahas and their 

 Close cognates certain lessons in organization, by which t hey had profited 

 during the formative period of the artificial social structure of the Ton'- 

 won-gdhon or gens. 



The Ton' -won-gdhon. — The word To>i'-wow-gdliow, means a place of 

 .dwellings, where kindred dwelt together. There were ten Ton'-won- 

 gdhow u'-zhu — dominant, ruling To«'-wo>t-gdhow, or gentes, in the 

 Omaha tribe. These gentes practiced exogomy, and traced their descent 

 only through the father. Each gens had its particular name, which 

 referred directly or symbolically to its totem, which was kept in mind 

 by the practice of tabu. There was also a set of names peculiar to each 

 gens, all having the same reference, one of which was bestowed upon 

 each child; an Omaha's gentile name, therefore, would at once reveal 

 his kinship groux) or gens. This name was proclaimed at the time of 

 the ceremony attendant upon the cutting of the first lock of hair. After 

 this ceremony the child's hair was cut in a fashion to symbolize the 

 totem of its gens, and each spring, until it was about 7 years of age, 

 this peculiar trimming of the hair was repeated. The teaching of this 

 object lesson, so placed before the children, was reenforced by their 

 training in the strict observance of the special tabu of their gentes, 

 holding ever before them the penalties for its violation of blindness, 

 physical deformity, and disease. 



There were religious rites peculiar to each gens in which the members 

 did homage to the special power represented by the gentile totem. In 

 these ceremonies the hereditary chiefs of the gens were the priests. 

 It is easy to see why the totem was never forgotten — why its sign was 

 borne through life, and at last put upon the dead, in order that they 



