Among the North American Indians a tribe is
a body of persons who are bound together by ties of
consanguinity and affinity and by certain esoteric ideas or
concepts derived from their philosophy concerning the
genesis and preservation of the environing cosmos, and who
by means of these kinship ties are thus socially,
politically, and religiously organized through a variety of
ritualistic, governmental, and other institutions, and who
dwell together occupying a definite territorial area, and
who speak a common language or dialect. From a great variety
of circumstances-climatic, topographic, and alimental-the
social, political, and religious institutions of the tribes
of North American Indians differed in both kind and degree,
and were not characterized by a like complexity of
structure; but they did agree in the one fundamental
principle that the organic units of the social fabric were
based on kinship and its interrelations, and not on
territorial districts or geographical areas.
In order to constitute a more or less permanent body politic or tribe, a people
must be in more or less continuous and close contact, and possess a more or less
common mental content-a definite sum of knowledge, beliefs, and sentiments which
largely supplies the motives for their rites and for the establishment and
development of their institutions, and must also exhibit mental endowments and
characteristics, that are likewise felt to be common, whose functioning results
in unity of purpose, in patriotism, and in what is called common sense. The tribe
formed a political and territorial unit which, as has been indicated, was more
or less permanently cohesive: its habitations were fixed, its dwellings were
relatively permanent, its territorial boundaries were well established, and
within this geographical district the people of the tribe represented by their
chiefs and headmen assembled at stated times at a fixed place within their
habitation and constituted a court of law and justice. At the time the North
American Indians were first brought within the view of history, they were
segregated into organized bodies of persons, and wherever they assembled they
constituted a state, for they united the personal and the geographical ideas in
fact, if not in theory.
Various terms have been employed by discoverers, travelers, and historians to
designate this political and territorial unity. French writers employed
"canton," "tribu," and "nation"; English writers used "tribe," "canton," and "kingdon,";
while others have used "pagus," "shire," and "gau," the territorial meaning of
which is that of a section or division of a country, whereas the concept to be
expressed is that of a country, an entire territorial unit. Because the word
"tribe" in its European denotation signifies a political unit only, its use
without a definition is also inaccurate. The jejune and colorless terms "band"
and "local group" are often employed as adequately descriptive of an organized
body of Indian people; but neither of these expressions in the majority of cases
should be used except when, from the lack of definite ethnologic information
regarding the institutions of the people so designated, the employment of a more
precise and descriptive term is precluded.
The effective power of the tribe for offense and defense was composed not only
of the accumulated wealth of its members and the muscular strength, stamina, and
experience of its quota of warriors, but also of the orenda (q. v.), or
magic
power, with which, it was assumed, its people, their weapons and implements, and
their arts and institutions, were endowed.
Some tribes constituted independent states, while others through confederation
with other tribes became organic units of a higher organization, retaining
governmental control of purely local affairs only. Sometimes alliances between
tribes were made to meet a passing emergency, but there was no attempt to
coordinate structures of the social fabric in such manner as to secure
permanency. Nevertheless in North America a number of complex, powerful, and
well-planned confederations were established on universal principles of good government. Of this kind the League of the Five Tribes
of the Iroquois in the closing decades of the 16th century was especially
typical. This League was founded on the recognition and practice of six
fundamentals:
(1) the establishment and maintenance of public peace;
(2) the
security and health or welfare of the body;
(3) the doing of justice or equity;
(4) the advocacy and defense of the doing of justice;
(5) the recognition of the
authority of law, supported as it was by the body of warriors; and
(6) the use
and preservation of the orenda or magic power. The sum of the activities of
these six principles in the public, foreign, and private life of these tribes so
confederated resulted in the establishment and preservation of what in their
tongue is called the Great Commonwealth.
In the history of the American Indian tribes, differences in culture are as
frequent as coincidences. Different peoples have different ideas, different
ideals, different methods of doing things, different modes of life, and of
course different institutions in greatly different degrees and kinds. The course
of the history of a people is not predetermined, and it is divergent from
varying and variable conditions. Different results are consequent upon different
departures. In some places tribal organizations are established on a clan or a
gentile basis; in other regions a system of village communities was developed;
and in still others pueblos or village communities were founded. From these
different modes of life, influenced by varying environment and experiences, many
new departures, resulting in unlike issues, were made. For the reason that the
elementary group, the family, whence the other units are directly or mediately
derived, is always preserved, coincidences are not infrequent. The term "family"
here is taken in its broad sociologic sense, which is quite different from the
modern use of it as equivalent to fireside (see Family). In gentile and clan
tribal organizations a family consists of the union of two persons, each from a
different gens or clan, as the case might be, and their offspring, who therefore
have certain rights in, and owe certain obligations to, the two clans or gentes
thus united in marriage by the two parents.
In historical times, in the group of Iroquois peoples, the tribes consisted of
from 3 to 12 or 14 clans, irrespective of population. For social, political, and
religious purposes the clans of a tribe were invariably organized into two
tribal portions or organic units, commonly denominated phratries, each of which
units in council, in games, in ceremonial assemblies, or in any tribal gathering
occupied around the actual or assumed fire a place opposite to that hold by the
other phratry. In the placing of these clan groups the cult of the quarters is
merely vestigial, having long ago lost its influence. In the great tribal
gambling games between the units of the tribe (for phratry must at all times
contend against phratry), the eastern side of the "plot" was regarded as
insuring success; but at the present day the phratries alternate annually in
occupying this auspicious quarter, although the phratry occupying this side is
not at all times successful.
This dualism in the organization of the social, religious, and political units,
next in importance to that of the tribe itself, is seemingly based on a concept
derived from the primitive philosophy of the tribe regarding the procreation,
reproduction, and maintenance of life on earth. The clans of a phratry, or
association of clans, called one another "brothers," and the clans of the
opposite phratry "cousins" or "offspring." In the elder period the phratry, the
organic unit next to the tribe, was an incest group to the members of it, and
consequently marriage was prohibited within it, hence the phratry was exogamous.
But owing to the many displacements of the tribes by the advance of Caucasians
this regulation in regard to the phratry has fallen into disuse, so that at the
present time the clan alone is the exogamous group, just as the gens is the only
exogamous group in those tribes in which gentile organizations prevail and
gentile brotherhoods were formerly in vogue. There were, however, never any
phratriarchs as such. The chiefs and other officers of the several clans acted
as the directors and rulers of the two phratries, whose acts, to have tribal
force and authority, must have had the approval of both phratries acting
conjointly through their recognized representatives. Neither phratry could act
for the tribe as a whole. The members of a phratry owed certain duties and
obligations to the members of the opposite one; and these obligations were based
not only on considerations of consanguinity and affinity but also on esoteric
concepts as well. The reason for the last expression will be found to be
cosmical and will be emphasized later.
Selecting the Iroquois tribes as fairly typical of those in which the clan
organization had reached its highest development, it is found that in such a
tribe citizenship consisted in being by birth or adoption (q. v.) a member of a
clan, and membership by birth in a clan was traced only through the mother and
her female ancestors; hence it was solely through the mother that the clan was
preserved and kept distinct from every other. But although the child acquired
his birth-rights only through his mother, singularly enough it was through the
father that his or her kinship was extended beyond his own into that of his
father's clan, which owed to the offspring of its sons certain important
obligations, which bound these two clans together not only by marriage but by
the stronger tie of a recognized kinship. By this process the clans of the tribe
were bound together into a tribal unity. By the organization of the clans of the
tribe into two exogamic groups, the possible number of clans between which the
said mutual rights, privileges, and duties of fatherhood might subsist were in
most cases reduced by about half; but this reduction was not the object of this
dualism in tribal structure. The wise men of the early Iroquois, having endowed
the bodies and elements of their environment and the fictions of their brains
with human attributes, regarded these bodies and phenomena as anthropic beings,
and so they imputed to theta even social relations, such as kinship and
affinity, and not the least of these imputed endowments was that of sex-the
principles of fatherhood and motherhood. These beings were therefore apportioned
in relative numbers to the two sexes. Even the Upper and the Lower and the Four
Quarters were regarded as anthropic beings. They, too, were male and female; the
Sky was male and a father; and the Earth was female and a mother; the Sun, their
elder brother, was male, and the Moon, their grandmother, was female. And as
this dual principle precedent to procreation was apparently everywhere present,
it was deemed the part of wisdom, it would seem, to incorporate this dual
principle by symbolism into the tribal structure, which was of course devised to
secure not only welfare to its members living and those yet unborn, but also to
effect the perpetuation of the tribe by fostering the begetting of offspring. If
then a clan or a gens or a phratry of clans or gentes came to represent
symbolically a single sex, it would consequently be regarded as unnatural or
abnormal to permit marriage between members of such a symbolic group, and so
prohibition of such marriage would naturally follow as a taboo, the breaking of
which was sacrilegious. This would in time develop into the inhibition of
marriage commonly called exogamy as a protest against unnatural and incestuous
sex relations. The union of man and woman in marriage for the perpetuation of
the race was but a combination in the concrete of the two great reproductive
principles pervading all nature, the male and the female-the father and the
mother. It would seem, then, that exogamy is not an inhibition arising from any
influence of the clan or gentile tutelary, as some hold, but is rather the
result of the expression or the typifying of the male and the female principles
in nature-the dualism of the fatherhood and the motherhood of nature expressed
in the social fabric.
In pursuing the study of this dualism in organic tribal structure it is
important to note the appellations applied by the Iroquois to these two esoteric
divisions.
When the Five Tribes, or the Five Nations as they were sometimes called, united
in the formation of their famous League of the Iroquois, this dualistic concept
was carefully incorporated into the structure of the organic federal law. The
Mohawk, the Onondaga, and the Seneca were organized into a phratry of three
tribes, ceremonially called the "Father's Brothers," while the Oneida and the
Cayuga were organized into a phratry of two tribes, ceremonially called "My
Offspring," or the phratry of the "Mother's Sisters." These esoteric
designations are echoed and reechoed in the long and interesting chants of the
Condolence Council, whose functions are constructive and preservative of the
unity of the League, and of course adversative to the destructive activity of
death in its in myriad forms.
It is equally important and interesting to note the fact that the name for "father" in the tongues of the Iroquois is the term which in the cognate
Tuscarora dialect signifies 'male,' but not 'father,' without a characteristic
dialectic change. It is thus shown that fundamentally the concepts "father"
and "male" are identical.
In the autumn at the Green Corn Dance, and in the second month after the winter
solstice at the extensive New Year ceremonies, the chiefs and the elders in each
phratry receive from those of the other the enigmatic details of eams dreamed by
fasting children, to interpreted by them in order to ascertain the personal
tutelary (?totem, q. v.) of the dreamer. And in the earlier time, because the
procreation of life and the preservation of it must originate with the paternal
clan or association of clans, the members of such a clan should in a reasonable
time replace a person killed or captured by enemies in the clan of their
offspring. The paternal clan and the phratry to which it belonged was called,
with reference to a third person, hoñdoñnis'hěn', i. e.
'his father's brothers
(and kindred).' Since the clan, and therefore the tribe of which it is a
component part, is supported by the numbers of those who compose it, whether men
or women (for its power and wealth lie chiefly in the numbers of its constituents), it followed that the loss of a single person was a great one and one that
it was necessary to restore by replacing the lacking person by one or many
according to the esteem and the standing in which he was held. This peculiar
duty and obligation of the members of the paternal clans to their offspring in
the other clans is still typified among the modern Tuscarora and other Iroquois
tribes on the first day of the new year. On this day it is customary to make
calls of congratulation and for the purpose of receiving a present, usually some
article of food, such as small cakes, doughnuts, apples, pieces of pie, etc. But
every person on entering the house of a clansman of his or her father may
demand, in addition to the ordinary presents provided, "a baby," using for this
purpose the ordinary term for a baby, owi'ră'ă`. To comply with these apprehended demands, the thrifty housewife, to aid her good man in fulfilling his
obligations, usually has prepared in advance a goodly number of small mummy-like
figures of pastry, 8 or 10 inches in length, to represent symbolically the
"babies" demanded.
So it would seem that marriage, to be fruitful, must be contracted between
members of the male and the female parts of the tribal unity. In primitive
thought, kinship, expressed in terms of agnatic and enatic kinship, of
consanguinity and affinity, was the one basis recognized in the structure of the
social organization. At first all social relations and political and religious
affiliations were founded on ties of blood kinship of varying degrees of
closeness; but later, where such actual blood kinship was wanting, it was assumed
by legal fictions (see Adoption). Within the family as well as outside of it
the individual was governed by obligations based primarily on kinship of blood
and on certain fundamental cosmical concepts consonant therewith.
The Omaha tribe is constituted of ten gentes organized into two divisions of
five gentes each, and this dualism in the organization of the tribal gentes into
two constituent exogamous bodies is apparently prevalent in all the tribes
cognate with the Omaha, with perhaps the exception of the Ponca. When on the
great annual tribal hunt, the Omaha tribe camped ceremonially in the form of an
open or broken circle. When the tribe performed its religious rites this circle
was always circumspectly oriented. But when the tribe was moving, the opening of
the camp-circle always faced the direction in which the tribe was marching,
although the opening was symbolically toward the east. This symbolic fiction was
accomplished by turning the circle in such manner that if the actual opening
faced the west the five tribal gentes whose invariable place was on the north side
of the circle when actually oriented would still be found on the north side of the
camp-circle and the other live gentes on the south. But it seems that this order was
not always punctiliously observed at home. This persistent adjustment of the
order in which the gentes were-placed in regard to the real orient was a reflex
of the cult of the quarters and apparently rested on a concept concerning the
origin of life and of the bodies of the environing world. Like the Iroquois, and
perhaps all the other Indian peoples of North America, the Omaha imputed life
and human attributes and qualities to the various bodies and elements in nature.
So regarding them as anthropomorphic beings, even social relations such as kinships and affinities were attributed to them, and not the least among these
imputed properties was sex. Like all living things these bodies must need be
apportioned to the two sexes. And as the various regions and quarters were
regarded as beings, they also were male or female by nature. The Sky is male and
a father, and the Earth is female and a mother; the Above is masculine, and the
Below is feminine; the Sun is male, the Moon female. Since these two principles
are necessary to the propagation of the races of men and animals, they were also
made factors in the propagation and conservation of the necessaries of life. And
as this dualism appeared seemingly in all living things, it was deemed needful
to embody these two so necessary principles symbolically in the organic units of
the tribal organization; and so it would appear that the one side as the
representative of the Sky was made male and the other as representing the Earth
was made female. Therefore it would seem that marriage to be fruitful must be
between the male and the female parts of the tribal unity. Descent being traced
solely through the father, it was he who sustained the gens and kept it distinct
from every other. By birth the child derived his name, his place, his taboo, and
his share in the rites of his gens solely from his father; but, on the other
hand, it was through his mother's gens that his kinship was projected beyond the
gens of his birth. So it is clear that it is the tie of maternal kinship the bond
of affinity-that actually binds together the gentes and that impresses every
individual with the cohesive sentiment that he is a member of an interrelated
kinship body of persons.
According to Miss Fletcher (Nat. Mus. Rep., 1897), from whom the data
characterizing the Omaha tribal organization has been largely derived, the
distinctive features of the Omaha gens and those of
its close cognates are, in general, that descent is traced only through the
father, that the chieftainship is apparently not hereditary, that its members do
not derive their lineage from a common ancestor, that it possesses a set of
personal names, that it practices a common rite, that it is not named after any
individual, and that it is exogamous. So that the Omaha tribe, having ten such
gentes organized in two exogamous associations, to each of which belongs a
tribal pipe and a phratriarch who is one of the governing council of seven
chieftains, has, among other things, ten religious rites, ten taboos, ten sets
of personal names, and a governing council of seven chieftains. Formerly
marriage was permitted only between members of the two exogamous associations,
but not between the members of either among themselves.
According to Boas there are remarkable differences in
the complex social organizations of the tribes of the northwest coast. Of these the
Haida and the
Tlingit, both having maternal descent, are each composed of two exogamous
organic and organized halves or units, which among the Tlingit are called the
Raven and the Wolf, respectively, while among the Haida they are known by the
names Eagle and Raven. The sociology of these two tribes, while approximating in
general structure that of the Tsimshian, having likewise a definite maternal
organization, is less complex, for among the latter there are apparently four
exogamous associations with subdivisions or sub-clans. Before any satisfactory
knowledge of the tribal structure and its functions can be obtained, it is
necessary to possess in addition to the foregoing general statements a detailed
arid systemized knowledge of the technique by which these several organic units,
singly and jointly, transact the affairs of the tribe.
This kind of information
is still in large measure lacking for a great proportion of the North American
Indian tribes. Among the Kwakiutl, Boas found a peculiar social organization
which closer study may satisfactorily explain. Among the northern Kwakiutl
tribes there are a number of exogamic clans in which descent is traced
preferably in the maternal line, but in certain cases a child may be counted as
a member of his father's clan. Yet, Boas adds, "By a peculiar arrangement,
however, descent is so regulated that it proceeds in the maternal line."
In speaking of the widely prevalent dualism in the highest organic units of the
tribal structure, especially with reference to these tribes of the northwest, Boas
remarks: "Since the two-fold division of a whole tribe into exogamic groups is
a phenomenon of very wide occurrence, it is fruitless to speculate on its
origin in this special case, but it is worth while to point out that Dr Swanton
in his investigations among the Haida was led to the conclusion that possibly
the Eagle group may represent a foreign element in the tribe," and states what
but few others appear to see: that the crest system ("totemism") on the Pacific
coast is not necessarily connected with this peculiar division of the tribe. But
it has already been herein indicated in what manner this dualism has been hade a
feature in the social structure of at least two linguistic stocks, and that the
reasons there advanced may be tentatively accepted as at least a probable
explanation of such divisions in other tribes having analogous social
institutions, unless it can be shown with greater reason to be due to some other
equally potent cause.
Among the Salish, the clan and the gentile forms of social structure do not
occur. In this respect the littoral Salish differ materially from those of the
interior. Among the latter, according to Hill-Tout, the social fabric is so
simple and loose that it "borders closely upon anarchy," while among the former
it is comparatively complex, and the commune is divided into "a number of hard
and fast classes or castes," three in number, exclusive of the slave class.
Boas, writing in 1905 of the Salish tribes of the interior of British Columbia,
says that in the "very loose" social organization of these people, if such it
may be called, no tribal unit is recognized; that there are no exogamic groups;
and no hereditary nobility was found, personal distinction being acquired
chiefly by wealth and wisdom. While the exigencies of the food quest compelled
these Indians to change their habitations from season to season, their permanent
villages were situated in the river valleys. There are according to this author
frequent and considerable fluctuations in the population of the villages, but it
does not appear that these changes result in a diminution of the tribal
population. It appears that deer-fences and fishing places were the property of
certain persons and families, and moreover that the hunting territory was
regarded as the common property of the whole tribe. From the prominence given to
the "family" in marriage observances, in burial customs, and in property rights,
it is possible that further Investigation will reveal a much more complex and
cohesive organization than is now known to exist.
According to Chamberlain the social structure of the Kutenai is remarkably
simple, being in strong contrast to the social systems of great complexity found
in British Columbia and on the N. W. coast. There is no evidence that the
Kutenai have or ever had clan or gentile institutions or secret societies. Each
tribal or local community had a chief whose office was hereditary, although the
people always had the right to select some other member of the family when for
any cause it was needful so to do. The power and authority of the chief was
limited by the advice and action of the council. Formerly, a chief was elected
to direct the great hunting expeditions. The population of the tribe was
supported by the adoption of aliens by residence and by marriage. Descent was
probably traced through the mother, and marriage of first cousins was strictly
forbidden. These apparently tentative statements of Chamberlain indicate that
the tribe was held together by the ties of consanguinity and affinity.
