endency. In other words, the female was never so incorporated into
a new relation by the matrimonial tie, as to lose her family name, and
her mother's ancestral rights. If, for example, a deer totem female,
married a wolf or hawk male, she was still counted in the clan of the
deer, and never gave up her political rights, to the wolf or hawk
clans, which had provided for her a husband. Her position may, perhaps,
be better understood, by observing that the married woman, still
retained her maiden name--the sir name of her family. By this means she
preserved the identity of her clan, and with it, its heraldic and
political rights. Not only so, the property of a female, never vested
in, or belonged to the husband. This trait is still in full vogue, among
each of the tribes. Its operation has been witnessed the present year.

Matrons had also the right to attend and sit in council, and there were
occasions, in which they were permitted to speak. For this purpose, a
speaker was assigned to them, and this person became a standing officer
in the council.--It might pertain to the nations to bring in
propositions of peace. Such propositions might prejudice the character
of a warrior, but they were appropriate to the female, and the wise men
knew how to avail themselves of this stroke of policy. We speak of the
general and burdensome subjection of the female, among our Red Men--a
condition, indeed, inseparable from the hunter state, but here is a
trait of power and consideration, which has not yet been reached by
refined nations.

With respect to the cause of descent through the female line, it is
believed there are sound and politic reasons for such a custom, in the
nomadic state; but we have not time to examine them. The whole subject
of the separation of the tribes into a fixed member of original clans;
the connexion of these clans, preserved by the totems, and the selection
of the female as the preserver of these totemic ties, is one of deep
interest, and worthy of your inquiries. So far as the investigation has
been carried, it appears, that the primary object of this organization
was to preserve the NAMES of the original founders of the nation.--These
founders are said to have been the children of two brothers, and were
cousin-germans. But why preserve their names? What object was to result
from it? Were the persons who bore the names of the wolf, and the
turtle and the falcon and other species, famed as hunters or warriors?