147 
rank and position was his son or nephew, depending on the precise 
methofl of reckoning descent;^ and the man who held the highest title 
in a “ house ” received universal recognition as its chief. 
Not only were the noblemen graded, but also their “ houses 
The chief of the principal “ house ” in a clan was the local chief of 
that clan; if his clan predominated in a village, he was the head chief 
of the village, and if his village was more powerful than its neigh- 
bours, he was the most important man in the district. Obviously 
there was ample scope for rivalry whenever two “ houses ”, two clans, 
or two villages were approximately eciual in strength. While a chief 
could perhaps count on the loyalty of the nobles, commoners, and 
slaves attached to his own “ house ”, he relied solely on his personal 
prestige to gain the support of the remaining chiefs. 
We can now see more clearly the vast psychological chasm that 
sei:)arated the Iroquoian from the Pacific Coast system of organiza- 
tion. Each built its society upon the village community, the clan, 
and the phratry. But the Iroquoians, with a keen sense of democracy, 
permitted no social grading in their communities, no inequalities of 
rank, no inheritance of superior status. With an equally keen politi- 
cal sense, they subordinated their villages^ clans, and phratries to the 
compact tribal units, and then federated the tribes into nations. 
They had the spirit of empire builders, although their empire, like 
the glow of sunrise in an Arctic winter, faded away before it reached 
full brightness. The West Coast Indians, on the other hand, evinced 
no political ability, and concerned themselves but little with the 
theory and practice of government. They lived in an atmosphere of 
the past, and turned mainly to social activities, to ceremonies and 
festivals suffused with the mystic light of religion and tradition, to 
pomp and display where nobles jostled each other for place and posi- 
tion, to art and song and masked dances that displayed the glories of 
their “ houses ” and names. Wealth opened the gates to rank and 
honour, and men laboured for years to obtain food and skins, dishes, 
and canoes, for grand festiv-als that would enable them to advance 
a few steps higher than their rivals. The culture was not a virile one, 
like the Iroquoian, but a rich hot-house plant, nurtured by isolation 
1 Among the mntrilinear Iroqnoians a man wont to live at hia wife’s home, for the dwellings and 
all the furniture belonged to the women. In British OiUunbia the men owned the dwellings and the 
wife went to her husband’s home and village. Later, if the tribe was matriiitiear, her sons generally 
returned to their mother’.s village to take over tlie siieeession from their uncles. 
