t. Hist._, vol. i. pp. 98-104; Grote, _History of
Greece_, vol. iii. pp. 74, 88. It is interesting to compare
Grote's description with Morgan's (_Anc. Soc._, pp. 71, 94) and
note both the closeness of the general parallelism and the
character of the specific variations.]

[Sidenote: Structure of the tribe.]

The Indian tribe was a group of people distinguished by the exclusive
possession of a dialect in common. It possessed a tribal name and
occupied a more or less clearly defined territory; there were also
tribal religious rites. Its supreme government was vested in the council
of its clan-chiefs and sachems; and as these were thus officers of the
tribe as well as of the clan, the tribe exercised the right of investing
them with office, amid appropriate solemnities, after their election by
their respective clans. The tribal-council had also the right to depose
chiefs and sachems. In some instances, not always, there was a head
chief or military commander for the tribes, elected by the tribal
council. Such, was the origin of the office which, in most societies of
the Old World, gradually multiplied its functions and accumulated power
until it developed into true kingship. Nowhere in ancient North America
did it quite reach such a stage.

[Sidenote: Cross-relationships between clans and tribes: the Iroquois
Confederacy.]

Among the greater part of the aborigines no higher form of social
structure was attained than the tribe. There were, however, several
instances of permanent confederation, of which the two most interesting
and most highly developed were the League of the Iroquois, mentioned
above, and the Mexican Confederacy, presently to be considered. The
principles upon which the Iroquois league was founded have been
thoroughly and minutely explained by Mr. Morgan.[81] It originated in a
union of five tribes composed of clans in common, and speaking five
dialects of a common language. These tribes had themselves arisen
through the segmentation of a single overgrown tribe, so that portions
of the original clans survived in them all. The Wolf, Bear, and Turtle
clan were common to all the five tribes; three other clans were common
to three of the five. "All the members of the same gens [clan], whether
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, or Senecas, were brothers and
sisters to each other in virtue of their descent from the same common
[female] ancestor, and they recognized each