Nations, had an "Onondaga clan," and an "Oneida clan." [Footnote:
Rotisennakete, and Rotinenhiotronon. See J. A. Cuoq, _Lexique de la
Langut Iroquoise_, p. 154. The proper meaning of these names will be
hereafter shown.] It is a curious fact that, as Mr. Morgan states, "the
Iroquois claim to have originated a division of the people into tribes
[clans or gentes] as a means of creating new relationships, to bind the
people more firmly together. It is further asserted by them that they
forced or introduced this social organization among the Cherokees, the
Chippeways (Massasaugas) and several other Indian nations, with whom, in
ancient times, they were in constant intercourse." "The fact," he adds,
"that this division of the people of the same nation into tribes does
not prevail generally among our Indian races, favors the assertions of
the Iroquois." [Footnote: _League of the Iroquois_, p. 91.]
Further inquiry and reflection led this distinguished investigator to
take a totally different view, and to go to what may be deemed the
opposite extreme of regarding this clan system as an essential stage in
the growth of human society.

There can be no question that an idea of kinship pervaded the clan
system, and was its ruling element. It may, in many instances, have been
purely imaginary and, so to speak, figurative, like the "brotherhood" of
our secret associations; but it was none the less efficacious and
binding. As the members of a clan regarded themselves as brothers and
sisters, marriages among them were not allowed. This led, of course, to
constant intermarriages between members of the different clans of which
a nation was composed, thus binding the whole nation together. What the
founders of the Iroquois League did was to extend this system of social
alliances through the entire confederacy. The Wolf clansman of the
Caniengas was deemed a brother of the Wolf clansman of the Senecas,
though originally there may have been no special connection between