146 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



In old times the totems appeared on every house, but the 

 Mohawks at first had a village for each clan. This soon ceased. 

 When a clan seemed dying out, it might be replenished from 

 others. At one time the Mohawks preserved the Oneida nation 

 in this way, supplying husbands for the women. 



The principal chiefs were unequally distributed among the 

 clans, and some had none at all. This has been thought proof 

 that these originated after the formation of the league. In later 

 days there have been changes, and offices are not now always in 

 the clans to which they first belonged. 



David Cusick, a native Tuscarora, said that " each nation con- 

 tains sets of generations or tribes, viz : Otter, Bear, Wolf, Beaver, 

 Turtle. Each tribe has two chiefs to settle disputes." School- 

 craft found Eels resident among the Tuscaroras, but, in the face 

 of all history, said it was not an Iroquois clan totem. Charlevoix 

 spoke of the division of the Iroquois Turtle clan nearly two cen- 

 turies ago : *'The family of the Tortoise is split into two branches, 

 called the Great and Little Tortoise. The chief of each family 

 bears its name, and in all public deeds he is called by no other." 

 The latter branch is the Ball clan of some writers, a name derived 

 from a Hiawatha legend. 



Those who have treated of the Iroquois system as a carefully 

 arranged and artificial plan, rather than a natural growth, have 

 had much to say on the wisdom of the totemic bond, supposing 

 that its great advantages had been foreseen. All members of a 

 clan were considered near relatives ; the three principal clans 

 belonged to all the nations, and their supposed family relationship 

 and actual friendship seemed to bind all together. The rule 

 against marrying in the same clan made another link. There 

 was no household which did not belong to two or more clans. 

 If a man might not have a place in the Grand Council by reason 

 of his clan, his son possibly might, for father and child were 

 never of the same. The children followed the mother's side in 

 nation and tribe, thus enhancing her dignity. In many such 

 ways the clan strengthened the league. A wise plan would have 

 required each one of these everywhere, but they came in a simple 



