662 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



order to accompany the deceased. The Sun caste was perpetuated in 

 the female line, but children and grandchildren of male Suns enjoyed 

 certain prerogatives in descending order, though by the time great- 

 grandchildren were reached the dilution of low caste blood was sup- 

 posed to have been sufficient to reduce one to the "Stinkard" category. 

 (Dumont, 1763, vol. 1, pp. 175-181 ; Du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, pp. 393-397 ; 

 S wanton, 1911, pp. 100-108.) Elsewhere in the Southeast we get 

 fewer indications of social stratification. Among the Creeks we learn 

 that the Wind clan enjoyed a privileged position and that the Bear 

 clan possessed minor privileges, also that some clans, particularly the 

 smaller ones, were looked down upon (Swanton, 1928, pp. 114 et seq.). 

 The non -Muskogee towns are said to have been looked down upon 

 similarly by those belonging to the dominant tribe, and Dr. Haas 

 seems to have found preferential ratings among the latter (Haas, 1940) . 

 According to an informant of Schoolcraft, the totemic clans of the 

 Chickasaw were ranged in a scale as follows, beginning with 

 that of the chief which, of course, stood at the top: Minko (Chief), 

 Shawi (Raccoon), Ko ishto (Panther), Spani (Spanish), Nani 

 (Fish), Haskona (Skunk). This is confirmed in the main by Gibbs 

 who, however, gives more clans and arranges them somewhat differ- 

 ently. He begins with the Spanish and follows with the Raccoon, 

 Panther, Wildcat, Fish, Deer, Haloba, Bird, and Skunk. Speck was 

 told of a gradation among the house groups of which the clans con- 

 sisted but there is some confusion in his material between clans and 

 house groups, and his informant may actually have had the clans in 

 mind (Schoolcraft, 1851-1857, vol. 1, p. 311; Swanton, 1928 c, p. 191). 

 We should expect equality among the Choctaw if anywhere. One of 

 our earliest authorities says that one of the two moieties into which the 

 house groups were divided was called "captives," or "slaves," and was 

 less regarded than the other, but it is questionable whether this may not 

 have had rather a ceremonial than a social significance (Swanton, 

 1931 a, pp. 76-79 ; Swanton, 1932) . Nothing of a caste nature has been 

 reported from the Cherokee and nothing from the eastern Caddo. By 

 an old man belonging to the western Caddo, I was told that their clans 

 were ranged into a kind of caste pattern, in accordance with the 

 relative "strength" of the totemic animals. This has been described 

 above. Needless to say marriages took place within the clan more 

 often than outside or some clans would have disappeared (Swanton, 

 1931, p. 204). 



Chiefs and their families certainly occupied a privileged position 

 among the coastal Algonquians and the Piedmont Siouans, but we 

 do not know how definitely the distinctions were established. Barlowe 

 says that those Indians who had pieces of copper in their hair were 

 the only ones among the Algonquians he met in the Sound country of 



