THE CONDOLING COUNCIL.--CLANS AND CLASSES.
The name usually given to the Book of Rites, or rather to its contents,
is, in the Canienga dialect, _Okayondonghsera Yondennase_ (or in the
French missionary orthography, _Okaiontonhstra Iontennase_), which may
be rendered "Ancient Rites of the Condoling Council." [Footnote:
_Okaionlonhsera_ is a substantive derived from _akaion_, old, or
ancient. The termination _sera_ gives it an abstract sense. "The
antiquities," or rather "the ancientnesses," is the nearest literal
rendering which our language allows, _Iontennase_ is a verbal form,
derived from _kitenre_ (in Bruyas, _gentenron_), to pity, or sympathize
with. It may be rendered "they who sympathize," or "the condolers."
Both, words, however, have acquired a special meaning in their
application to these ceremonies.] Among the many councils, civil and
religious, tribal and federal, in which the public spirit and social
temper of the Iroquois found their most congenial and most popular mode
of display, the Yondennase, the Condoling (or Mourning) Council, held
the highest rank. It was, in a certain way, typical of the whole, and
comprised the elements of all the other councils. In its earlier form
this council was not peculiar to the Iroquois. We know, from the Jesuit
reports, that it was the custom of the Hurons to hold a public
lamentation for the death of a chief, and at the same time to appoint
another who should take his place and assume his name. But that which
among the Hurons was merely a tribal custom became, in the Iroquois form
of government, an important institution, essential to the maintenance of
their state. By the ordinances of their League, it was required that the
number of their federal senate should be maintained undiminished. On the
death of one of its members, it was the duty of the nation to which he
belonged to notify the other nations of the event, and of the time and
place at which he would be lamented and his successor installed. The
notice was given in the usual manner, by official messengers, who bore
for credentials certain strings of wampum, appropriate to the occasion.
The place of meeting was commonly the chief town of the nation which had
suffered the loss. In this nation a family council, under the
presidency, and subject, indeed (as has been shown), to the controlling
decision, of the chief matron of the deceased senator's kindred--usually
his mother, if she survived him--was in the meantime convened to select
his successor. The selection must be approved both by his clan and by
his nation; but as their sentiments were generally known beforehand,
this approval was rarely withheld. Indeed, the mischief resulting from
an unsuitable choice was always likely to be slight; for both the
national council and the federal senate had the right of deposing any
member who was found unqualified for the office.
At the appointed day the chiefs of the other nations approached the
place of meeting. A multitude of their people, men and women, usually
accompanied them, prepared to take part both in the exhibitions of grief
and in the festivities which always followed the installation of the new
councillor. The approaching chiefs halted when they reached the border
of the "opening," or cleared space surrounding the town. Here took place
the "preliminary ceremony," styled in the Book of Rites,
"_Deyughnyonkwarakda_," a word which means simply "at the edge of the
woods." At this point a fire was kindled, a pipe was lighted and passed
around with much formality, and an address of welcome was made by the
principal chief of the inviting nation. The topics of this address
comprised a singular mixture of congratulation and condolence, and seem
to have been prescribed forms, which had come down from immemorial
antiquity, as appropriate to the occasion.
The guests were then formally conducted--"led by the hand," as the Book
recites--to the Council House of the town. They seem, anciently at
least, to have advanced in the order of their clans. The towns belonging
to the Wolf clan were first enumerated--probably as the chiefs belonging
to them took their places--then the towns of the Tortoise clan (or
double clan, as it is styled), and finally those of the Bear clan. In
all, twenty-three towns are named. Five of them are expressly stated to
have been "added lately." The residue are supposed to be the names of
the towns in which the people of the Five Nations resided at the time
when the confederacy was formed, though this point is uncertain. That
few of these can now be identified, is what would naturally be expected.
It is well known that the Indians had the custom of removing their towns
from time to time, at intervals varying from ten to twenty years, as the
fuel in their neighborhood became exhausted, and as the diminished crops
under their primitive mode of agriculture showed the need of fresher
soil. Only those villages would be permanent whose localities offered
some special advantages, as fortresses, fishing places, or harbors.
[Footnote: See Appendix, note E.]
This list of towns has another peculiarity which arrests the attention.
It apparently comprises all the towns of the League, but these are
divided among only three clans, those of the Wolf, the Tortoise and the
Bear. The other clans of the confederacy are not once named in the book.
Yet there are indications which show that when the list of chiefs which
concludes the book was written, at a date long after this list of towns
was first recited, other clans existed in three of the nations. This is
an important point, which merits further consideration. Those who have
read the admirable account of the "League of the Iroquois," by Morgan,
and his philosophic work on "Ancient Society," are aware that he has
brought out and elucidated with much clearness and force the nature and
results of the remarkable clan system which prevails among the North
American Indians. It is not universal, as it does not seem to be known
among the widely scattered bands of the Crees and the Athapascans, or
among the Indians of Oregon. [Footnote: See _Ancient Society_, pp. 167,
175, 177.] It was found, however, among the great majority of tribes in
the region north of Mexico and east of the Rocky Mountains, and was
sufficiently alike in all to indicate a common origin. Mr. Morgan finds
this origin in a kinship, real or supposed, among the members of each
clan. He considers the clan, or gens, and not the single family, to be
the natural unit of primitive society. It is, in his view, a stage
through which the human race passes in its progress from the savage
state to civilization. It is difficult, however, to reconcile this
theory with the fact that among some races, as for example, the
Polynesian and Feejeean, which are in precisely the same stage of social
advancement as the North American Indians, this institution is unknown;
and even among the Indians, as has been said, it is not everywhere
found. There are many indications which seem to show that the system is
merely an artificial arrangement, instituted for social convenience. It
is natural, in the sense that the desire for association is natural to
man. The sentiment is one which manifests itself alike in all stages of
society. The guilds of the middle ages, the masonic and other secret
brotherhoods, religious organizations, trade unions, clubs, and even
political parties, are all manifestations of this associative instinct.
The Indian clan was simply a brotherhood, an aggregate of persons united
by a common tie, sometimes of origin, sometimes merely of locality.
These brotherhoods were not permanent, but were constantly undergoing
changes, forming, dividing, coalescing, vanishing. The names of many of
them show their recent origin. The Chicasas have a "Spanish clan."
[Footnote: _Ancient Society_, p. 163.] The Shawnees had a "Horse clan."
[Footnote: Ibid, p. 168.] The Iroquois, of Eastern Canada, made up of
fragments of all the Five 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
them. It was a tie apparently artificial in its origin, as much so as
the tie which binds a freemason of Berlin to a freemason of New Orleans.
But it came to have all the strength of a tie of kindred. Mr. Morgan has
well pointed out the wisdom shown by the Iroquois founders, in availing
themselves of this powerful element of strength in the formation of
their federal constitution. [Footnote: _League of the Iroquois_, p. 82,
_et seq_.] Their government, though politically a league of nations, was
socially a combination of clans. In this way Hiawatha and Dekanawidah
may be deemed to have given to the system of clan-ship an extension and
a force which it had not previously possessed; and it is by no means
unlikely that this example may, as the Iroquois assert, have acted upon
neighboring nations, and led to a gradual increase in the number and
influence of these brotherhoods.
But here a discrepancy presents itself in the Iroquois system, which has
perplexed all who have written on the subject. Two of the Six Nations,
the Caniengas and Oneidas, had only three clans, the Wolf, the Tortoise
and the Bear; while the others had, or at least have, each eight or
nine, and these variously styled in the different nations. The three
which have been named are, indeed, found in all; but besides these
three, the Onondagas have five, Deer, Eel, Beaver, Ball and Snipe. The
Cayugas and Senecas have also eight clans, which are similar to those of
the Onondagas, except that among the Cayugas the Ball clan is replaced
by the Hawk, and among the Senecas both Ball and Eel disappear, and are
replaced by Hawk and Heron. The Tuscaroras have likewise eight clans,
but among these are neither the Hawk, the Heron or the Ball. In lieu of
them the Wolf clan is divided into two, the Gray Wolf and the Yellow
Wolf, and the Tortoise furnishes two, the Great Tortoise and the Little
Tortoise; [Footnote: It is deserving of notice that this division of the
Tortoise clan seems to exist in a nascent form among the Onondagas. The
name of this clan is Hahnowa, which is the general word for tortoise;
but the clan is divided into two septs or subdivisions, the
Hanyatengona, or Great Tortoise, and the Nikahnowaksa, or Little
Tortoise, which together are held to constitute but one clan. How or why
the distinction is kept up I did not learn. In the Book of Rites the
Tortoise clan is also spoken of in the dual number--"the two clans of
the Tortoise." It is probable, therefore, that this partial subdivision
extended throughout the original Five Nations, and became complete among
the Tuscaroras.] the Bear, the Beaver, the Eel and the Snipe remain, as
among the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas.
We are naturally led to ask how it happens that only three clans are
found among the Caniengas and Oneidas, while the other nations have
eight. Mr. Morgan was inclined to think that the other five once existed
among the two former nations, and had become extinct. [Footnote: _League
of the Iroquois_, p. 81. Ancient Society, p. 92.] The native annalists
of those nations, however, affirm that no more than three clans ever
existed among them. This assertion is now confirmed, indirectly but
strongly, by the testimony of the Book of Rites, which seems to show
that only three clans were recognized in the whole confederacy when the
League was formed. All the towns of the united nations were distributed
among the three primary clans of the Wolf, the Tortoise and the Bear. If
the other clans existed, it was probably merely as septs or divisions of
these three. [Footnote: "The Turtle family, or the Anowara, was the most
noble of the whole League; next came the Ochquari, or clan of the Bear,
and the Oquacho, or that of the Wolf. These three were so prominent that
Zeisberger hardly recognizes the others."--_De Sckweinitz's Life of
Zeisberger_, p.79. Zeisberger had been adopted into the nation of the
Onondagas and the clan of the Tortoise. His knowledge of the laws and
usages of the Kanonsionni was acquired chiefly in that nation.
Charlevoix makes the Bear the leading clan of the Iroquois. It would
seem that the relative rank of the clans varied in the different
nations. The chiefs of the Wolf clan come first in the list of Oneida
councillors.] It is more likely, however, that these additional clans
were of later creation or introduction. Their origin, as well as their
restriction to the three western nations, may be easily explained. The
successive conquests achieved by the Iroquois in the early part of the
seventeenth century had the result of incorporating with their people
great numbers of Hurons, Eries, Attiwandaronks, Andastes, and other
captives belonging to tribes of the same stock, speaking similar
dialects, and having usages closely resembling those of their captors.
Of these captives, some were directly adopted into the Iroquois families
and clans; but a larger number remained for a time in separate towns,
retaining their own usages. They were regarded, however, and they
regarded themselves, as Iroquois. Constant intercourse and frequent
intermarriages soon abolished all distinctions of national origin. But
the distinction of clan-ship would remain. The Hurons (or, at least, the
Tionontates, or Tobacco Nation) had clans of the Deer and the Hawk, and
they had a Snake clan bearing a name (_yagonirunon_) not unlike the name
of the Onondaga Eel clan (_ogontena_), and evidently derived from the
same root. The other conquered nations had doubtless some peculiar
clans; for these brotherhoods, as has been shown, were constantly in
process of formation and change among the Indian tribes. Almost all the
captives were incorporated with the three western nations of the League,
to whom the conquered tribes were mostly nearer than to the Caniengas
and Oneidas. The origin of the additional clans among the Onondagas,
Cayugas and Senecas is thus readily understood.
One fact, important in its connection with the structure of the federal
council, remains to be noted, and if possible, elucidated. The
councillors of each nation were divided into classes, whose part in the
deliberations of the councils bore a certain resemblance to that held by
the committees of our legislatures. The operation of this system cannot
be better described than in the words of Morgan: "The founders of the
confederacy, seeking to obviate, as far as possible, altercation in
council, and to facilitate their progress to unanimity, divided the
sachems of each nation into classes, usually of two or three each, as
will be seen by referring to the table of sachemships. No sachem was
permitted to express an opinion in council, until he had agreed with the
other sachem or sachems of his class upon the opinion to be expressed,
and had received an appointment to act as speaker for the class. Thus
the eight Seneca sachems, being in four classes, could have but four
opinions, the ten Cayuga sachems but four. In this manner each class was
brought to unanimity within itself. A cross-consultation was then held
between the four sachems who represented the four classes; and when they
had agreed, they appointed one of their number to express their
resulting opinion, which was the answer of their nation. The several
nations having, by this ingenious method, become of 'one mind'
separately, it only remained to compare their several opinions to arrive
at the final sentiment of all the sachems of the League. This was
effected by a conference between the individual representatives of the
several nations; and when they had arrived at unanimity, the answer of
the League was determined." [Footnote: _League of the Iroquois_, p,
112.]
A careful consideration of the facts, in the light cast upon them by the
evidence of the "Book of Rites" and the testimony of the Canadian
Iroquois, leaves no doubt that these classes were originally identical
with the clans. Among the Caniengas and Oneidas this identity still
exists. Each of these nations received nine representatives in the
federal council. These were--and still are--divided into three each
composed of three members, and each class representing a clan. In the
Canienga tribe the members of the first class are all of the Tortoise
clan, those of the second class are of the Wolf clan, and those of the
third class of the Bear clan. Among the Oneidas, the councillors of the
first class belong to the Wolf clan, those of the second class to the
Tortoise clan, and those of the third class to the Bear clan. Such was
the information which Mr. Morgan received from his Seneca friends, and
such I found to be the fact among the Iroquois now in Canada. When we
come to the other nations we find a wholly different state of things. No
correspondence now exists between the classes and the clans. The Cayugas
have now, as has been shown, eight clans; but of these only six,
according to the list given by Morgan, and only five in that furnished
to me by the Canadian chiefs, are represented in the council. These are
distributed in three classes, which do not correspond to the clans. In
Morgan's list the first class has five members, the first of whom
belongs to the Deer clan, the second to that of the Heron, the third and
fourth to that of the Bear, and the fifth to that of the Tortoise. In my
list this class also comprises five chiefs, of whom the first two
(identical in name with the first two of Morgan) belong to the Deer
clan, while the third (who bears the same name as Mr. Morgan's third) is
of the Bear clan. In the "Book of Rites" the first Cayuga class
comprises only two chiefs, but their clans (which were supposed to be
known to the hearers) are not indicated. The fourteen Onondaga
councillors are divided into five classes, according to Morgan, and also
in the modern Canadian list. The "Book of Rites" seems to give only
four, but none of these--according to the evidence of the Canadian
chiefs--correspond with the modern clans; and the same councillor, in
lists received from different sources, is found to belong to different
classes and different clans. Thus the distinguished title of Skanawati
is borne, in Mr. Morgan's list, by a chief of the fifth class and of the
third clan. In the list obtained by me at Onondaga Castle this chief is
of the fourth class and of the Ball clan. The great Seneca chief
Kanyadariyo is, in Mr. Morgan's list, a member of the Tortoise clan,
while among the Canadian Senecas he belongs to the Wolf clan. In short,
it is evident that the introduction of the new clans among the western
nations has thrown this part of their constitutional system into
confusion. The probability is that when the confederacy was established
only three clans, Bear, Wolf and Tortoise, existed among the Iroquois,
as only three clans, Bear, Wolf and Turkey, existed in recent times
among their Algonkin neighbors, the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares. Thus the
classes of their Council grew spontaneously out of their clan system, as
the senators of each clan would naturally consult together. Afterwards
new clans arose; but it seems probable that when the list of councillors
comprised in the "Book of Rites" was written--that is, about the middle
of the last century--the correspondence of classes and clans was still
maintained. The number of both was increased in the western tribes, but
each class was still composed of chiefs of the same clan. The written
book fixed the classes to a certain extent, but the clans to which their
members belonged continued to vary, under the influence of political and
social changes. If, at the death of a councillor, no member of his clan
was found qualified to succeed him, a successor would be elected from
another clan which was deemed to be in some way connected with him. I
was assured by the Onondaga chiefs of the New York Reservation that this
was their rule at present; and it is quite sufficient to account for the
departure, in the western nations, from the ancient system. It is
evident that after the nations and clans were rent to fragments by the
dissensions and emigration caused by the American Revolution, these
changes would, for a time, be necessarily frequent. And thus it happens
that chiefs are found in the duplicate confederacies which after this
disruption were established in Canada and New York, who bear the same
titular designation, but differ both in the clans and in the classes to
which they belong.