of the native metals. In mental capacity and in general advancement
they were the representative branch of the Indian family north of
New Mexico General F A. Walker has sketched their military career in
two paragraphs "The career of the Iroquois was simply terrific. They
were the scourge of God upon the continent." [Footnote: North
American Review April No. 1873 p. 360 Note.] From lapse of time the
Iroquois tribes have come to differ slightly in the number and in
the names of their respective gentes, the largest number being eight,
as follows:


Seneca Cayuga Onondaga Oneida Mohawks Tuscarora
1 Wolf Wolf Wolf Wolf Wolf Gray Wolf
2 Bear Bear Bear Bear Bear Bear
3 Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Great Turtle
4 Beaver Beaver Beaver Beaver
5 Deer Deer Deer Yellow Wolf
6 Snipe Snipe Snipe Snipe
7 Heron Eel Eel Eel
8 Hawk Hawk Ball Little Turtle


These changes show that certain gentes in some of the tribes have
become extinct through the vicissitudes of time, and that others
have been formed by the segmentation of over full gentes.

With a knowledge of the rights, privileges, and obligations of the
members of a gens, its capabilities as the unit of a social and
governmental system will be more fully understood, as well as the
manner in which it entered into the higher organizations of the