SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF WINNEBAGO INDIANS. 
9 
tribe over the large area once occupied in Wisconsin. That the 
4,000 odd individuals composing the tribe at the advent of 
the whites lived together is extremely doubtful. The nature of 
the woodland of Wisconsin and the fairly extensive territory 
over which they (Winnebago) were found scattered not long 
after Nicollet’s first visit are facts that practically exclude such 
a hypothesis. The myth that speaks of a village that at one 
time was so long that those living at one end did not know what 
was transpiring at the other, contains too many literary touches 
to justify its use as an historical document. 
The question of village groups is of considerable importance, 
because there may have been, cutting across the gentle organiza- 
tion, another smaller, perhaps looser social unit, that of “band” 
or village setting off (to the minds of the people) one group 
against another. Systematic questioning has elicited from 
various individuals the information, also corroborated by 
historical records, that the villages were generally known accord- 
ing to geographical location or were descriptive of the haunts of 
certain animals. Even to-day the group scattered over the 
Nebraska Winnebago reservation are commonly known under 
similar designations. There we find, for instance, the following 
names: kozo-atcira, “those living on the peninsula”; or k'i(hg.'tc- 
ira, “those living below,” i.e., in the timber; niwq'hatcira, “those 
living near the dirty water”; hi^tcxedegominaygera , “where big 
bear settles,” etc. If we may, then, suppose this to have been 
a customary association, we may quite properly ask whether 
the name of the village had any influence on the social organization, 
whether there is even a hint at a genetic relation between these 
two types of group names. The only hint of such a relation is 
the fact that formerly honi “band” seems to have been used 
instead of hokik'aradjdra; that an archaic name of the Wolf 
clan, regoni or degoni> may mean Lake-band; and that the villages 
all had geographical names. All of which, however, is, I realize, 
hardly sufficient evidence. 
No satisfactory demonstration has as yet been made indicat- 
ing that the clan organization was ever associated with an histor- 
ically simple social structure, whereas quite a number of reasons 
lead us to suspect that it was in all cases preceded by other 
