The Creeks, according to the account given by their old chief, Sekopechi,
to Mr. D. W. Eakins, were divided into nine clans, named in most cases
from animals: clanship being transmitted, as usual, through the female. ]

The clans were by no means equal in numbers, influence, or honor.
So marked were the distinctions among them, that some of the early
writers recognize only the three most conspicuous,--those of the Tortoise,
the Bear, and the Wolf. To some of the clans, in each nation, belonged
the right of giving a chief to the nation and to the league. Others had
the right of giving three, or, in one case, four chiefs; while others
could give none. As Indian clanship was but an extension of the family
relation, these chiefs were, in a certain sense, hereditary; but the law
of inheritance, though binding, was extremely elastic, and capable of
stretching to the farthest limits of the clan. The chief was almost
invariably succeeded by a near relative, always through the female,
as a brother by the same mother, or a nephew by the sister's side.
But if these were manifestly unfit, they were passed over, and a chief
was chosen at a council of the clan from among remoter kindred. In these
cases, the successor is said to have been nominated by the matron of the
late chief's household. [ Lafitau, I. 471. ] Be this as it may, the
choice was never adverse to the popular inclination. The new chief was
"raised up," or installed, by a formal council of the sachems of the
league; and on entering upon his office, he dropped his own name, and
assumed that which, since the formation of the league, had belonged to
this especial chieftainship.

The number of these principal chiefs, or, as they have been called by way
of distinction, sachems, varied in the several nations from eight to
fourteen. The sachems of the five nations, fifty in all, assembled in
council, formed the government of the confederacy. All met as equals,