The Omaha Redskins distinguish the degrees of kinship almost in the same way as the Iroquois Senecas. For them also the most distant ascendants are all grandfathers or grandmothers. They class all their relations in groups, formed of individuals virtually brought together by similar degrees of consanguinity or alliance. Whole categories of individuals, more or less numerous, are called brothers or fathers of a man or woman; all those whom the father of a person calls brothers are fathers to that person; all those whom the mother of a woman calls husbands are also fathers to that woman. The name "mother" is given to all the women reputed as sisters to the mother, to the aunts or nieces of the mother, and also to the virtual wives of the father.
A man has virtually for wives all the wives of his brothers, and also their widows, on account of the levirate.
If a man has a brother-in-law who is at the same time the husband of a paternal aunt, the sister of that man is the grand-daughter of the brother-in-law.
A man becomes your brother-in-law if he is merely the husband of a paternal aunt, because he can marry your sister.
The husband of a daughter, of a niece, or of a grand-*daughter, is a son-in-law.[1]
All the sons and all the daughters of persons reputed as fathers and mothers call each other brothers and sisters. All the wives, real or virtual, of the grandfather are called grandmothers; so are also all the mothers or grandmothers of the fathers and mothers, and all the women that the fathers and mothers call sisters.
A man counts as his sons all the sons of his brothers or of his virtual wives; but the sisters of these sons are his sisters. A woman calls the sons and daughters of her brothers her nephews and nieces, but the children of her sister are counted as her own children; because their father is virtually her husband.
Among the Omahas a man calls his sister's children nephews and nieces. A person of either sex counts as grandchildren all those who are called the children of his sons, daughters, nephews, and nieces, or reputed as such.
- ↑ Owen Dorsey, loc. cit., p. 255.
