Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-11-03
Curious Habits Of Indians.

Among the Wyandots the female sex
is more socially important than the
male. The head of the family is a
woman; kinship through the female
line constitutes the ''gens," as it is
called by indian e%thno1ogists; in each
gems there is a council, composed of
four women, who, with a male chief
selected by them, form the gentle
council. The aggregated gentle
councils form the tribal council, so
that tribal civil government is in
trusted to a body composed of four
women for every man. This system.
however, is departed from upon special
occasions, when the leading men of the
tribe are added to the council. The
sachem, or tribal chief, too, is chosenby
the chiefs of the gentes from among
their number. Lastly, the military
government, which is sharply distin-
guished from the civil, is carried on by a
council consisting of all the able-bodied
men of the tribe. The nomenclature of
an Indian tribe is no haphazard arrange
ment, but regulated upon strict princi-
pies. Each gems among the Wyandots
has the name of some animal, and each
individual in the gems is named from
some special characteristic of that
animal. Thus the eleven gentes of the
Wyandots are the Deer, Bear, Striped
Highland Turtle, Black HighlandTurtle,
Mud Turtle, Smoothe Large Turtle,
Hawk, Beaver, Wolf, Sea Snake, and
Porcupine. A man of the Bear gems,
then, for instance, is called by such a
name as ''Long Claws"; a women ofthe
eopoo ~opo <SCr,,p<in~ for. how
Young a man of thee Mud Tur-
tie gems ''Hard Skull; a woman
of The Smooth Large Turtle
gems .'Slow Walker;;'' a woman of the
Wolf gems "Always Hungry" a mar of
the Snake gems "Sitting in Curled Posi-
tion;'' and so on. These picturesque
names have become by long usage less
vivid to the Indian than they appear to
us when literally translated. The same
is, of course, true in any language, our
own included. Once a year, at the
green-corn festival, the councilwomen
Of the gems select the names for the chill
dren born during the previous year. No
person may change his name, but every
person, man or woman, may win a Sec
ond name by honorable behavior or by
incidents in his career. We have said
that the gems is a collection of persons
related through the female line. Strange
to our ideas, a man may marry a blood
relation, provided she is not a member
of his own gems. Thus he may marry
his aunt or his cousin by the fathers
side, but not by the mothers side, be-
cause these last belong to his own gems.
He may have several wives, but they must
belong to different gentes. In the rule
that every man or woman must marry
within the tribe WI see some likeness to
the connubial laws of early Rome. If a
man wishes to marry outside the tribe.
he must get his intended bride adopted
into some gems, SO as to get over the
difficulty. In the event of the death of
q mother, the children belong to her
sister or to her nearest female kin.
Each clan or gems has a distinct method
of painting the face. 1t has allotted to
it a regular place in the tribal encamp-
ment, which is in the form Of a circle or
open horseshoe. Throughout North
America the tenure of landed property
among the Indians is communal. Within
the area occupied by the tribe each gems
has an allotment of its own, determined
by the tribal council. The gentle allot-
ment, again, is parceled out by the
women councillors among the house,
holders every two years. Cultivation is
usually carried on by the women. The
mans province is to fish the stream or
to scour the forest for game. The wig
wan and all articles Of the household
belong to the woman, who is the head
of the household, and at her death is
inherited by her eldest daughter or
nearest of female kin. Here is another
remarkable instance of the woman's po-
sition in the social scale. The hus-
bands property consists of his clothing
and weapons of the chase, and such
articles as are used personally by him,
London Times.
Two ostriches in California have
kicked their mates to death. The mules