468 
ANTHROPOLOGY: A. C. FLETCHER 
to think, to will, to bring to pass. This unseen, undying, unifying 
force is called by the Omaha and cognate tribes, Wakonda. Through 
Wakonda all things came into being, are ever related, and, more or less 
interdependent. Consequently, Nature stood to the Indian as the man- 
ifestation of an order instituted by Wakonda wherein man was an inte- 
gral part. To this order he turned for guidance when establishing those 
means, religious and secular, that would insure to him, individually and 
socially, safety and continuous life. 
Finding himself to be one of a wide reaching family, the Indian planned 
his tribal organization upon the type of that family. He divided the 
people into two great sections, one to represent the sky, the other, the 
earth. Each of these sections was composed of a number of kinship 
groups, called by the Indian, To^-wo°-gtho°, meaning, village. (These 
villages are spoken of as clans or gentes by students of our race.) 
Each village stood for some one of the forms of life seen in Wakonda's 
instituted order. The sky was the abode of the sun, the moon, the 
stars, the storm cloud with its thunder and lightning. The earth, with 
its land and water was the abode of the trees, the grasses, and the various 
animals so closely allied to man and his needs. The tribal organiza- 
tion aimed to mirror man's environment. The tribal rites were instituted 
to provide a means by which the people could approach the invisible 
power, believed to abide in Nature, for help, to secure food, safety and 
long life. 
Each village (gens) had its own ceremony which was also a component 
part of the tribal rites, wherein all the villages (gentes) were thus repre- 
sented. The ceremony of each village (gens) had a central subject, 
some form or force, having its abode in the sky or on the earth, and repre- 
sented by a symbol. The name given to this symbol by the Omaha 
and cognate tribes, is 1-ni-ka-shi-ki-the, a term composed of, I, by 
which; ni-ka-shi, a part of ni-ka-shi-ga, people; ki-the, make themselves; 
and means, that by which they make or designate themselves a people. 
(Students of our race have applied to this symbol the term 'totem.') 
As has been shown, this symbol referred to one of the forms or forces 
belonging to Nature as instituted by Wakonda, therefore represented 
in the tribal organization and the tribal rites. The symbol had a sacred 
significance to the people of the village (gens) in whose ceremony it 
held the central place. It bound the people of the village (gens) to- 
gether by a sacred tie, made them distinctive among the other villages 
(gentes) that composed the tribe, and, it was a link between the people 
of the village (gens) and the invisible Wakonda. The symbol belong- 
ing to a village (gens) is always referred to metaphorically in the name 
