[28] The important feature of camping was left to the women, according to the Indian custom. Occasion often controlled circumstances as to the form of this particular ceremony. Hunting, visiting, or war parties were usually carefully organized. The tribal circle, each segment composed of a clan, gens or band, made a living picture of tribal organization and responsibilities. The usual opening through the circle was toward the east, which calls to mind religious rites and obligations of an earlier people, being further exemplified in the position which was usually given to the ceremonial tents. See A. C. Fletcher in Pub. of the Peabody Museum.
[29] The clan or gens among the American Indians is an intertribal, exogamic group of persons actually or theoretically consanguine. See J. N. B. Hewitt in Bul. 30, B. A. E., and J. W. Powell in the 17th Rep., B. A. E., Part I, 1898, page 29 passim. Throughout all of the American tribes of savagery it has been found that peculiar groups of persons are organized and known as shamanistic societies or phratries, viz: banded religious bodies. The term however must be extended that it may include the ceremonies which the savage believed to be religious. Peace and warfare, health and disease, welfare and want, pleasure and pain, all, whether good or evil, are believed to be under control of such societies as noted. The gens is to be found in Greek and Roman history, where it is known as the agnatic kindred. The tribe remains a body of consanguineal kindred: it is composed of groups of gentes that are incest groups, and the mates in marriage must belong to different gentes. See [appendix A.]
[30] For an account of the mythical origin of each of the Iowa gens, see J. O. Dorsey, Social Organization of the Siouan Tribe in the Journal of American Folklore, Vol. IV, 1891, No. XV, page 338. This was recorded by Rev. William Hamilton in 1848 and was published from a letter by him to the children of the Presbyterian Sunday schools. Dorsey also obtained from the Iowa, during a visit to that tribe in 1880, a list of the gentes and later perfected this with a list of the subgentes. This list is included herewith as an appendix from the 15th Rep., B. A. E., 1897.
[31] Dorsey. Siouan Sociology.
[32] See Cyrus Thomas. Mound Explorations, 12th Rep., B. A. E., 1894, page 111. A plan of the section noted above is given in this report, which is the most complete on mound exploration ever attempted. It may well be termed definitive.
[33] The study of games as played among North American Indians, is a field in itself. This has been covered most exhaustively by Mr. Stewart Culin in his recent work, Games of the North American Indians: (24th Rep., B. A. E., 1907), and to this volume we refer any student who wishes to make detailed researches. In addition to this work, Catlin’s great contribution to the history of the North American tribes is in itself a mine of general information, though his little volume entitled The Fourteen Ioway Indians, published in London in 1844, treats of the games of the Iowa more particularly. Where possible the earlier edition of that writer’s Letters and Notes should be used rather than the later issues with the colored plates, such method of illustration having been condemned by Catlin from the beginning. Indian Games an Historical Research by Andrew McFarland Davis, is a valuable monograph. All of the above refer in extenso to the Iowa.
[34] The Fourteen Ioway Indians. London, 1844. This little pamphlet is now scarce, and was written by Catlin at the instance of the parties who brought the Indians to London. He was particularly interested from an humanitarian point of view. An edition was issued in Paris, a year later, with woodcuts by Porret, adding interest to the work.
[35] The Fourteen Ioway Indians.
[36] Ibid.
[37] A translation of the song for this occasion is as follows: