8 
nearly always a bird, fish, or animal. On ceremonial occasions its 
members painted their faces in a special style, and occasionally repre- 
sented the totem bird or animal on their clothing. Thus the otter people 
worked an otter in beadwork on the front of the coat, and the loon people 
attached the head of a loon. More often the Indians etched their totems 
on pendants of stone, copper, silver, or, very frequently, on the carapace 
of a turtle cut into the shape of a cross; a few carved them also on their 
bow T s and war clubs. These emblems followed a man even to his grave; 
for his relatives painted his face in the style peculiar to his clan and 
carved his totem, inverted, on a small board or post at the head of his 
tomb. 1 
Since in each family husband and wife belonged to different clans, 
every camp and every settlement contained members of at least two clans, 
and generally of several. No band, however, embraced all the clans, or 
was acquainted with the entire number that prevailed in other parts of the 
Ojibwa territory. The Parry Island Indians indeed know less concerning 
them today than formerly, when they were more migratory and the clans 
were a more important feature in their lives. Hence lists derived from 
different informants varied widely. The most complete runs as follows: 
Birds: crane, loon, eagle, gull, hawk, crow. 
Animals: bear, caribou, moose, wolf, beaver, otter, racoon, skunk. 
Fish: sturgeon, pike, catfish. 
Miscellaneous: crescent moon. 
Other lists add: 
Squirrel, turtle; (more doubtfully) fisher, marten, mink, and birch bark. 
The crescent moon clan is probably mythical. It was said to have 
vanished without leaving a trace, although very active in the war of 1812. 
According to tradition its members painted their totem on the front of the 
coat, or possibly on the bare chest, and were so swift of foot that they 
could run down the caribou. 
Six at least of these clans have representatives today on Parry island, 
viz., reindeer, beaver, otter, loon, hawk, and eagle. Up to about fifteen 
years ago each of them held an annual feast at some convenient season, 
but with the decay of tribal life this has now dropped out. The prohibition 
against marriage within the clan is also disappearing, although the older 
men still shake their heads at endogamy and ascribe to it some of the 
misfortunes that have overtaken the band. Yet the feeling of kinship that 
once united fellow clansmen still survives in an attenuated form. A Parry 
Island Indian visiting a strange Ojibwa community naturally seeks out 
the members of his own clan and expects from them hospitality and 
assistance. 
“ My clan is the caribou. I have never visited Temogami, but I have heard there 
are caribou people there also, and if ever I wish to spend a winter in that district 
I shall seek them out and ask them to use their influence with their band so that it 
will assign me a good hunting-ground. They are my relatives and will certainly help 
me” (Pegahmagabow). 
1 The writer could find no indication of the belief, current elsewhere, that the totem guided the soul to the land 
of the dead, or that a man acquired his totem through a visitation in childhood. The carving on the grave served 
merely to indicate the clan of the deceased to strangers, who, if fellow clansmen, would often deposit a little tobacco 
or other present for the ghost. 
