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APPENDIX B
[Vol.
Natchez, bravery in war, wisdom in council, oratorical, poetical, or artistic talents, real or supposed psychic powers - in short, any variety of excellence whatever served in all Indian tribes to give one prominence among his fellows, and it is not strange that popular recognition of a man's ability sometimes reacted to the benefit of his descendants. Although it was always a position of great consequence, leadership in war was generally separate from and secondary to the civil chieftainship. Civil leadership and religious primacy were much more commonly combined. Among the Pueblos all three are united, forming a theocracy. Councils of a democratic, unconventional kind, in which wealthy persons or those of most use to the tribe had the greatest influence, were universal where no special form of council was established. . . The tribes possessing a well-defined clan system are divided into three groups - the north Pacific, southwestern, and eastern. . . Among the Plains Indians the Omaha had a highly organized social system. The tribe was divided into ten gentes called 'villages,' with descent through the father, each of which had one chief. Seven of these chiefs constituted a sort of oligarchy, and two of them, representing the greatest amount of wealth, exercised superior authority. The functions of these chiefs were entirely civil; they never headed war parties. Below them were two orders of warriors, from the higher of which men were selected to act as policemen during the buffalo hunt. Under all were those who had not yet attained to eminence. During the buffalo hunts and great ceremonials the tribe encamped in a regular circle with one opening, like most other plains tribes. In it each gens and even each family had its definite position. The two halves of this circle, composed of five clans each, had different names, but they do not appear to have corresponded to the phratries of more eastern Indians. A man was not permitted to marry into the gens of his father, and marriage into that of his mother was rare and strongly disapproved. Other plains tribes of the Siouan family probably were organized in much the same manner and reckoned descent similarly. The Dakota are traditionally reputed to have been divided into seven council fires, each of which was at one time divided into two or three major and a multitude of minor bands. Whatever their original condition may have been their organization is now much looser than that of the Omaha. . . The social organization of the western and northern Algonquian tribes is not well known. The Siksika [more commonly known as Blackfeet] have numerous subdivisions which have been called gentes; they are characterized by