3G6 
into exoj>amous phratries, clans, and houses, not two phratries onl\% 
as among the Tlinkit and Haida, or even four as among the Tsim- 
shian, but five.^ Most of the details of this organization (e.g. the 
titles of the nobles, their crests and privileges) naturally came from 
the Tsimshian of the Skeena river, with whom many of these western 
Carrier intermarried; but the Kwakiutl of Kitimat, and the Salishan- 
speaking Bella Coola also contributed in varying degrees, depending 
on the strength of their contacts with the different sub-tribes. The 
system, therefore, differed slightly from one Carrier group to another. 
Thus, among the Indians of the Bulkley river, and of Stuart and 
Babine lakes, who rigidly adhered to the matrilineal organization of 
the Tsimshian, the son of a nobleman by a woman of the commoner 
class was a commoner, and only by the greatest exertions ever suc- 
ceeded in raising himself above that class. But the Carrier around 
Fraser lake and Stony creek, who had freciuent contact with the 
Bella Coola, placed more emphasis on the father’s rank than on the 
mother’s, and at Fraser lake counted a man among the nobles even 
if his father alone was noble. 
The territory of each sub-tribe was divided among the phratries, 
and further subdivided among the clans. In consequence every dis- 
trict and every fishing jilace was claimed by some clan and con- 
sidered the property of its chief, who supervised its use for the benefit 
of his fellow-clansmen and retainers. Yet the final ownership rested 
with the entire phratry, whose head man (i.e. tlie chief of the princi- 
pal clan) could temporarily allot tlie area to some other clan and 
assign its usual possessors another district. Poaching by members of 
other phratries was a very serious offence certain to cause strife and 
bloodshed unless the cliiefs of the phratries took up the issue and 
arranged for adequate compensation. 
Nearly every community contained members of all the phratries, 
and the principal man in a village was the leading nobleman of the 
phratry most strongly represented. Although the phratries them- 
selves were of equal rating, inequalities in their strength among the 
different sub-tribes affected the relative prestige of their chiefs. Even 
the most powerful chief, however, rarely dared to act without consult- 
ing the clan chiefs in his phratry, and generally also the chiefs of 
1 To-day their number has boon redured to four Ihrougli tlie aTnaigamation of two pluatrios in the 
second half of the ninet«mtli cenliiry, after smallpox had deeaniated the peorde. 
