r236 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Plate 62 



1 The most curious and ingenious form is that of no. 1. I have 

 never seen a duplicate of this brooch. It symbolizes the totems, 

 or family union and the man, including the story of their warrior 

 ancestors. By the marriage law of the Iroquois, the tribes were 

 divided into clans or families con«sisting of four elder and four 

 younger brothers. For example, the Senecas were of eight 

 families — Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron and 

 Hawk. From the establishment of the confederacy this family 

 heraldry has been perpetually hereditary. By special arrange- 

 ments, fraternity was secured and the identity of blood kin pre- 

 served. The first four of the clans, being brothers, could not 

 intermarry, and likewise the younger four, but either of the elder 

 four could intermarry with the younger four, the reUitionship 

 being cousins. The rigor of this tribe or clan rule hais been some- 

 what relaxed during the past century, and a member of any one 

 clan may marry with a member of any other, but members of the 

 same clan may not marry — a Wolf may not marry a Wolf. 

 Therefore brooch no. 1 tells the story of the union of the Wolf 

 and Bear family. The upper figure represents the bear. The 

 lower, the Wolf, united by a human face, signifying the head of 

 the family. The figure of the Wolf terminates in the war club. 

 The bear holds the war club, and the pin, or buckle, unites the 

 two. The Bear chief had married the Wolf woman. Both 

 descended from sachems, or head chiefs. 



2 This represents a combination of the great eagle, guardian 

 of the dews and war, or sky and earth. At the spread of the tail 

 the small winged symbols indicate his duty in the air. The flat 

 half circles tell the sign of his earth or war oflSce. The simplest 

 brooch mark is not an accident of the graver's tool. Each stroke 

 is a symbol in hieroglyphs understood by the expert sign reader. 



