Each grand family is known by a badge or symbol, taken from nature; being generally a quadruped, bird, fish, or reptile. The badge or Dodaim (Totem, as it has been most commonly written), descends invariably in the male line; marriage is strictly forbidden between individuals of the same symbol. This is one of the greatest sins that can be committed in the Ojibway code of moral laws, and tradition says that in former times it was punishable with death.[1]
In the present somewhat degenerated times, when persons of the same Totem intermarry (which even now very seldom occurs), they become objects of reproach. It is an offence equivalent among the whites to the sin of a man marrying his own sister.
In this manner is the blood relationship strictly preserved among the several clans in each tribe, and is made to extend amongst the different tribes who claim to derive their origin from the same general root or stock, still perpetuating this ancient custom.
An individual of any one of the several Totems belonging to a distinct tribe, as for instance, the Ojibway, is a close blood relation to all other Indians of the same Totem, both in his own and all other tribes, though he may be
- ↑ In the Iroquois Book of Rites edited by Horatio Hale, Number 2 of Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature, there is the following statement, pp. 51, 52, as to the clan system.
"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 or aggregate of persons, united by a common tie. What the founders of the Iroquois league did, was to extend this system of social alliances through the entire confederacy. The Wolf clans-man of the Caniengas is deemed a brother of the Wolf clans-man of the Senecas, though originally there may have been no special connection between them."–E. D. N.
