While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The Wyandot tribe was anciently divided into twelve clans, or gentes. Each
of these had a local government, consisting of a clan council presided
over by a clan chief. These clan councils were composed of at least five
persons, one man and four women, and they might contain any number of
women above four. Any business pertaining purely to the internal affairs
of the clans was carried to the clan councils for settlement. An appeal
was allowed from the clan council to the tribal council. The four women of
the clan council regulated the clan affairs and selected the clan chief.
The office of clan chief was in a measure hereditary, although not wholly
so. The tribal council was composed of the clan chiefs, the hereditary
sachem, and such other men of the tribe of renown as the sachem might with
the consent of the tribal council call to the council fire. In determining
a question the vote was by clans, and not by individuals. In matters of
great importance it required a unanimous vote to carry a proposition.
The names of the ancient clans of
the Wyandot tribe are as follows:
1. Big Turtle
2. Little Turtle
3. Mud Turtle
4. Wolf
5. Bear
6. Beaver
7. Deer
8. Porcupine
9. Striped Turtle
10. Highland Turtle, or Prairie Turtle
11. Snake
12. Hawk
These clan names are all expressed in
Wyandot, words so long and hard to properly
pronounce that they are omitted here. They
are written in what the Wyandot call the Order of Precedence and Encampment, as I have recorded
them above. On the march the warriors of the Big Turtle Clan marched in
front, those of the Little Turtle Clan marched next to them, and so on
down to the last clan, except the Wolf Clan, which had command of the
march and might be where its presence was most necessary. The tribal
encampment was formed “on the shell of the Big Turtle,” as the old
Wyandot said. This means that the tents were arranged in a circular form
as though surrounding the shell of the Big Turtle. The Big Turtle Clan was
placed where the right fore-leg of the turtle was supposed to be and the
other clans were arranged around in their proper order, except the Wolf
Clan, which could be in the center of the inclosure on the turtle's back,
or in front of it where the turtle's head was supposed to be, as it was
thought best. In ancient times all their villages were built in this
order, and in the tribal council the clans took this order in seating
themselves, with the sachem either in the center or in the front of the
door of the council chamber.
These clans were separated into two divisions, or
phratries. The first phratry consisted of the
following tribes:
1. Bear 2. Deer
3. Snake
4. Hawk
The second phratry consisted of the following
tribes:
1. Big Turtle
2. Little Turtle
3. Mud Turtle
4. Beaver
5. Porcupine
6. Striped Turtle
7. Highland Turtle, or Prairie Turtle
The Mediator, Executive Power, and Umpire of the tribe was the Wolf
Clan, which stood between the phratries, and bore a cousin relation to
each.
All the clans of a phratry bore the relation of
brothers to one another, and the clans of one phratry bore the relation of
cousins to those of the other phratry.
Their marriage laws were fixed
by this relationship. Anciently a man of the first phratry was compelled
to marry a woman of the second phratry, and vice versa. This was because
every man of a phratry was supposed to be the brother of every other man
in it, and every woman in the phratry was supposed to be his sister. The
law of marriage is now so modified that it applies only to the clans, a
man of the Deer Clan being permitted to marry a woman of Bear, Snake,
Hawk, or any other clan but his own. Indeed, even this modification has
now almost disappeared. If a man of the Deer Clan married a woman of the
Porcupine Clan, all of his children were of the Porcupine Clan, for the
gens always follows the woman and never the man. The descent and
distribution of property followed the same law; the son could inherit
nothing from his father, for they were always of different clans. A man's
property descended to his nearest kindred through his mother. The woman is
always the head of the Wyandot family.
Five of the ancient clans of the Wyandot are extinct.
They are as follows: (1) Mud Turtle; (2) Beaver; (3) Striped Turtle; (4)
Highland, or Prairie Turtle; (5) Hawk.
Those still in existence are as follows: (1) Big
Turtle; (2) Little Turtle; (3) Wolf; (4) Deer; (5) Bear; (6) Porcupine;
(7) Snake.
The present government of the Wyandot tribe is based on
this ancient division of the tribes. An extract from the Constitution may
be of interest. It was adopted September 23, 1873:
It shall be the duty of the said Nation to elect
their officers on the second Tuesday in July of each year. That said
election shall be conducted in the following manner. Each Tribe (clan),
consisting of the following Tribes: The Big and Little Turtle, Porcupine,
Deer, Bear, and Snake, shall elect a chief; and then the Big and Little
Turtle and Porcupine Tribes shall select one of their three chiefs as a
candidate for Principal Chief. The Deer, Bear, and Snake Tribes shall also
select one of their three chiefs as candidate for Principal Chief; and
then at the general election to be held on the day above mentioned, the
one receiving the highest number of votes cast shall be declared the
Principal Chief; the other shall be declared the Second Chief. The
above-named tribes shall on the above named election day elect one or more
sheriffs.
The Wolf Tribe shall have the right to elect a chief
whose duty shall be that of Mediator.
In case of misdemeanor on the part of any Chief, for
the first offense the Council shall send the Mediator to warn the party;
for the second offense the party offending shall be liable to removal by
the Mediator, or Wolf and his Clan, from office.
The origin of these clans is hidden in the obscurity of
great antiquity. They are of religious origin. We learn something of them
from the Wyandot mythology, or folk-lore. The
ancient Wyandot believed that they were descended from these animals, for
whom their clans were named. The animals from which they were descended
were different from the animal of the same species to-day. They were
deities, zoological gods. The animals of the same species are descended
from them. These animals were the creators of the universe. The Big Turtle
made the Great Island, as North America was called, by the Wyandot, and
he bears it on his back to this day. The Little Turtle made the sun, moon,
and many of the stars. The Mud Turtle made a hole through the Great Island
for the sun to pass back to the East through after setting at night, so he
could arise upon a new day. While making this hole through the Great
Island the Mud Turtle turned aside from her work long enough to fashion
the future home of the Wyandot, their happy hunting-grounds, to which
they go after death. The sun shines there at night while on his way back
to the East. This land is called the land of the Little People, a race of
pigmies created to assist the Wyandot. They live in it, and preserve the
ancient customs, habits, beliefs, language and government of the Wyandot
for their use after they leave this world by death. These Little People
come and go through the “living rock,” but the Wyandot must go to it by
way of a great underground city where they were once hidden while the
works of the world were being restored after destruction in a war between
two brothers who were gods.
