TRIBAL ORGANIZATION.
57. Gentes.—The version of the Origin Legend by Tall Chanter, here given, accounts for only thirty-eight gentes among the Navahoes; but this informant was able to name, in all, forty-three gentes, two of which, he said, were extinct. Lists of the Navaho gentes have been obtained from various sources, and no single authority has been found to give a greater number than this. But no two lists are quite alike; they differ with regard to small or extinct gentes, and one list may supply a name which another has omitted. There would be at least fifty-one gentes extant and extinct in the tribe if each name so far obtained represented a different organization. But we find in the Legend instances of a gens having two names ([pars. 386], [405], [428], [445]).
58. On the other hand, it is possible that none of the lists may be complete. Gentes derived from women of alien races, added to the tribe since it has grown numerous and widely scattered, may exist in one part of the Navaho country unknown to the best informed persons in another part. Extinct gentes may be forgotten by one informant and remembered by another.
59. The following is a list of the forty-three gentes named by Tall Chanter:—
| 1. | Tseʻdzĭnkĭ′ni, | House of the Black Cliffs ([pars. 378]–[381]). |
| 2. | Tseʻtláni, | Bend in a Cañon ([par. 382]). |
| 3. | Dsĭ′lnaotĭ′lni, | Encircled Mountain ([par. 385]). |
| 4. | Haskánhatso (Haskanhatsódĭneʻ), | Much Yucca ([par. 386]). |
| 5. | Nahopáni, | Brown Streak; Horizontal on the Ground ([par. 387]). |
| 6. | Tsĭnadzĭ′ni, | Black Horizontal Forest ([par. 390]). |
| 7. | Thaʻnĕzáʻ (Thaʻnĕzáʻni), | Among the Scattered (Hills) ([par. 392]). |
| 8. | Dsĭltláʻni, | Base of the Mountain ([par. 393]). |
| 9. | Tháʻpaha (Tháʻpahadĭneʻ), | Among the Waters ([par. 394] et seq.). |
| 10. | Tsaʻyĭskĭ′dni, | Sage-brush Hill ([par. 399]). |
| 11. | Tseʻzĭndiaí, | Trap Dyke ([par. 401]). |
| 12. | Klógi (Klógidĭneʻ), | (Name of an old pueblo) ([par. 403]). |
| 13. | Tóʻhani, | Beside the Water ([par. 404]). |
| 14. | Tháʻtsini, | Among the Red (Waters or Banks) ([par. 405]). |
| 15. | Kai (Káidĭneʻ), | Willows ([par. 405]). |
| 16. | Kĭnlĭtsí (Kĭnlĭtsídĭneʻ), | Red House (of Stone) ([par. 406]). |
| 17. | Dĕstsíni, | Red Streak ([par. 408]). |
| 18. | Tlastsíni, | Red Flat ([par. 408]). |
| 19. | Notá (Notádĭneʻ), | Ute ([par. 409]). |
| 20. | Nakaí (Nakaídĭneʻ), | White Stranger (Mexican) ([par. 410]). |
| 21. | Toʻyĕtlíni, | Junction of the Rivers ([par. 411]). |
| 22. | Háltso (Háltsodĭneʻ), | Yellow Bodies ([par. 412]). |
| 23. | Toʻdĭtsíni, | Bitter Water ([par. 427]). |
| 24. | Maitóʻ (Maitóʻdĭneʻ), | Coyote Spring ([par. 428]). |
| 25. | Haslĭ′zni (Haslĭ′zdĭneʻ), | Mud ([par. 429]). |
| 26. | Toʻdokónzi, | Saline Water ([par. 430], [note 171]). |
| 27. | Bĭtáʻni, | Folded Arms ([par. 431]). |
| 28. | Tsĭnsakádni, | Lone Tree ([par. 441]). |
| 29. | Pinbĭtóʻ (Pinbĭtóʻdĭneʻ), | Deer Spring ([par. 442]). |
| 30. | Tseʻnahapĭ′lni, | Overhanging Rocks ([par. 445]). |
| 31. | Honagáʻni, | Place of Walking ([pars. 447], [448]). |
| 32. | Kinaáʻni, | High Standing House ([par. 458]). |
| 33. | Toʻbaznaáz (Toʻbaznaázi), | Two Come for Water ([par. 449]). |
| 34. | Nanastĕ′zin, | Black Horizontal Stripe Aliens (Zuñi) ([par. 452]). |
| 35. | Dildzéhi, | (Not translated) ([par. 453]). |
| 36. | Ásihi (Ásihidĭneʻ), | Salt ([par. 454]). |
| 37. | Maidĕskĭ′z (Maidĕskĭ′zni), | Coyote Pass (Jemez) ([par. 455]). |
| 38. | Tseʻyanatóʻni (extinct), | Horizontal Water under Cliffs ([par. 457]). |
| 39. | Tóʻtsoni, | Great Water ([par. 459]). |
| 40. | Bĭtáni or Dsĭltáni, | Brow of Mountain. |
| 41. | Tseʻyikéhe (Tseʻyikéhedĭneʻ), | Rocks Standing near One Another. |
| 42. | Tlĭziláni, | Many Goats ([par. 407]). |
| 43. | Toʻtsalsitáya (extinct), | Water under the Sitting Frog. |
60. The following are eight names obtained from other sources, and not mentioned by Tall Chanter:—
61. More than one translation of a gentile name has often been noted; but in the above lists only one translation is given,—that which the author regards with the most favor. Often, too, different narrators account differently for the origin of the gentile names. Some of the translations are very liberal, and others, again, very brief; but in the paragraphs and notes to which the reader is referred he will find fuller explanations. The Navahoes sometimes, but not invariably, add (as shown in the above lists) a suffix (dĭnéʻ, ni, or i), signifying people; but in the above translations, to simplify the study, the word “people” is omitted.
62. There are reasons, which the author has set forth in a previous essay[318] and will not now repeat, for believing that most of the Navaho gentes were originally local exogamous groups, and not true gentes according to Morgan’s definition.[325] There is little doubt that, in the majority of cases if not in all, the names of Navaho gentes, which are not the names of tribes, are simply designations of localities, even where the Legend states to the contrary; as, for instance, when it tells us that certain gentes of the Western immigrants were named from words that women uttered when they first tasted of the magic fountains ([pars. 427], [429], [430]).
63. On the other hand, there are passages in the Legend which indicate that a few of the Navaho gentes were once totemic, although no evidence of clan totems is known to exist among the Navahoes at the present time, and it is not improbable that a few of the gentile names may be of totemic origin, although they are now accounted for in other ways in the Origin Legend. The passage ([par. 419]) which tells us that Estsánatlehi gave certain pets to the wanderers from the West, and that these pets accompanied the people on their journey, refers in all probability to the former use of totemic clan symbols, and possibly to a custom of keeping live totemic animals in captivity,—a custom prevalent among the ancient Mexicans and the modern Pueblos, though not among the modern Navahoes. Other indications of a former totemism may be found in the story of the Deer Spring People ([par. 442], [note 195]; see, also, [note 173]).
64. In reading the fourth chapter of the Origin Legend—“Growth of the Navaho Nation”—one is impressed with the different degrees of willingness, on both sides, with which new gentes are adopted into the nation. In some instances two parties, meeting for the first time, embrace one another and become friends at once ([par. 382]). The clans from the Pacific coast—the Western immigrants, as they are here called—learn of the existence of kindred tribes far to the east, take a long and dangerous journey to join them, and, when their march is done, they are received by the Navahoes at once as brethren. On the other hand, the legend tells us of bands that camp long in the neighborhood of the Navahoes before they become incorporated with the latter ([par. 394]); of other clans descended from captives ([pars. 406], [454], [455]); and of others that seek refuge among the Navahoes only to escape starvation or persecution at home ([pars. 403], [452]). On the basis of their mode of adoption, the clans may be divided into the ready and the reluctant. The cause of this is probably one of language. Bands which we know to have been allied in language to the Navahoes—such as those derived from the Apaches—will be found among the ready; while bands which we know to have spoken languages very different to the Navaho—such as those derived from the Utes, from Zuñi, and Jemez—will be found among the reluctant. It is not unreasonable to conclude that the same rule applies to clans of whose original language we know nothing.
65. Phratries.—The gentes of the Navahoes are divided into a number of groups, each of which may be called a phratry. Authorities in the tribe differ as to the number of the phratries, and as to the gentes that compose them. Some make but eight phratries. Captain Bourke[294] has obtained a list of eleven, with three independent gentes. Some of the Navahoes say there are twelve phratries, and suggest that they have some relation to the twelve tribes who dwelt in the first world. But the Navaho phratry seems not to be a homogeneous organization. A case is mentioned in the Legend where a gens has changed its phratral affinities ([par. 451]). Inquiry, too, has revealed that there are sub-groups. There may be closer bonds of alliance among some gentes in a group than there are among others in the same group. Authorities, then, may differ without invalidating each other’s testimony.
66. These groups are indicated in the Legend when it says that one gens has become closely related or affiliated with another ([pars. 385], [399], [403] et al.), or when it says that two gentes cannot intermarry ([pars. 393], [401], [406]). If the Navahoes have a term equivalent to “phratry,” it has not been discovered. They have no special names for the different phratries; they often, but not always, speak of a phratry by the name of the most important gens in it.
67. If the Legend is to be taken as evidence, phratries have developed among the Navahoes both by segmentation of gentes and by the addition of new gentes from without; not by either method exclusively. But legendary evidence is not needed to show that gentes which bear to-day the names of alien tribes have been additions to the phratry.
68. Forbidden Degrees of Kindred.—A Navaho belongs to the gens of his mother and takes the name of that gens. Cases have been noted where a Navaho has been known by his gentile name and not by any other. No man may marry one of his own gens; neither may he marry one of his own phratry, though some exceptions seem to be made in the latter case where the limits of the phratry are not well defined. Where this descent in the female line exists among other tribes, it is held by some ethnographers that the man does not regard his father or his father’s people as his relations, and may contract a marriage with a woman of his father’s gens. Such is certainly not the case among the Navahoes. The gens and the phratry of the father are as much forbidden kindred as those of the mother.