The number of clans in the different Iroquois tribes varies; the smallest number is three representative clans, found in the Mohawk and the Oneida, while the Seneca have nine and the Onondaga eight. There are also some clans which, having no chief titles, are seldom named in public.
In historical times, and in the past as far as tradition informs us, every clan belonged to a sisterhood or phratry of clans, and so was not directly a member of a tribe. In all Iroquois tribes two sisterhoods or phratries of clans are found, each forming one side of the dual tribal organization. One of the tribal sides represents the fatherhood or male principle and the other the motherhood or female principle among living things.
There are three native terms in the speech of the Iroquois which may be translated into English by the word chief or chieftain. These are in the third person and in the Mohawk dialect, as follows: rakowā′nĕn‘, ră‘sĕñnowā′nĕn‘, and royā′ne‘r, each signifying “he (is) a chief.” The first two are generic and so may be applied to civil or military chiefs, while the last is at present restricted to chieftains of the League, who represent their tribal constituencies both in the tribal council and in the federal council of the League, and also is applied to the women chieftainesses. The chief bearing the last name has a subchief or messenger, who is usually mentioned by the agnomen, “The Cane” or “The Ear,” and who is symbolically represented as sitting on the roots of the Tree (the Chieftain) whose subchief he is. It is the duty of this subchief to see personally that the chief’s orders in his official capacity are carried out—either in person or by the aid of the warriors or other members of the clan.
The first of these official names signifies “he great, noble, (is),” being derived from the stem meaning, “great, large, or noble.” The second, meaning “his name great, noble, (is),” is derived from a compound stem composed of the noun “name” and the attributive qualifying stem just mentioned. The third term is notionally not connected with the two terms just mentioned. Its stem, -yā′ne‘r, means “beneficent, bountiful, good, promotive of good or of welfare, (to be).” This stem is also the basis of the words for Law, the Commonwealth or the Institution of the League. Thus, in Iroquoian thinking a law, or the body of laws, is what brings to pass what is highestly or greatestly good. And so, a federal chief could not engage in warfare while holding such a title.
Some biographic notice of at least four of the chief actors in the events leading up to the institution of the league may be of interest and be instructive. These four are Deganawida, Hiawatha, Djigonsasen, and Atotarho (Wathatotarho).
To begin with the first named. Deganawida was one of the world’s wonder children. His conception, birth, and career are largely idealized by tradition. Prophetic dreams and visions announced to his doubting grandmother his alleged divine origin and heavenly mission among men; prodigies attended his birth and childhood; he had power on earth and in heaven—that is to say, he knew and sought to do the will of the Master of Life, Te‘haron‘hywă’k′hon’. His mother and grandmother were poor and despised and lived alone in a small lodge by themselves on the outskirts of the village to which they belonged, and so they had few, if any, visitors who might seek the daughter for a wife. But there came a day when the watchful mother became aware that her daughter would herself in due time give birth to a child, and bitterly did she reprove her for not marrying a man in the customary way, for now she was bringing scandal upon her mother and herself. The daughter, however, steadfastly denied that she had had commerce with any man at any time, but her mother doubted her and carried her reproof so far as to cause the daughter much bitterness of spirit, and she, therefore, spent much time in silently weeping, for she loved her mother and claimed that she did not know the cause of her pregnancy, and she was deeply grieved by her mother’s chiding. It was then that the mother had a dream in which she was told by a divine messenger that she was doing her daughter great wrong in not believing her statement that she did not know the source of her condition; and she was further told that her daughter would bear a male child, whom they must call Deganawida, and that he would be indirectly the cause of ruin to their people.
The repentant mother upon awaking asked her daughter’s forgiveness for the wrong she had done her in not believing her denials. They, however, decided to destroy the life of the child when it should be born because of the dream’s declaration that he would grow up and be the source of evil to their people. So when the child was born they carried it to a neighboring stream of water, which was frozen over, and cutting a hole in the ice thrust the child into it to drown, and they returned to their lodge. But when they awoke in the morning they found the child unharmed and lying asleep between them. This attempt to rid themselves of this child was repeated twice more, but each time no harm came to the child, and then after consultation the two women decided that it was the will of the Master of Life that they should raise the child. They were most kind to him thereafter, and they gave him the name Deganawida, as the dream had directed the grandmother to do. He was reputed to have been one of seven brothers, but in regard to the father or fathers of the six younger brothers tradition is silent.
When he grew to man’s estate he informed his mother and grandmother that he must leave them to perform a great work in lands lying south of the great lake. He left them in a “white canoe,” which perhaps was a canoe of white birch, which later tradition has carelessly confounded with the ice canoe (= ice block) in which the Iroquoian myth of the Beginnings says the Winter God goes from place to place and which by further corruption of the misconception in modern literature has become a “flint” or “stone” canoe.
Tradition ranks Deganawida with the demigods, because of the masterful orenda or magic power with which, it was alleged, he tirelessly overcame the obstacles and difficulties of his great task; because of the astuteness and the statesmanship he displayed in negotiation; and lastly, because of the courage and wisdom he showed in patiently directing the work of framing the laws and elucidating the fundamental principles on which they and the entire structure of the Iroquois league or confederation must rest, if these were to endure to secure the future welfare of their posterity. He was a prophet and statesman and lawmaker of the Stone Age of North America. Tradition ascribes his lineage to no tribe, lest his personality be limited thereby.
The traditions concerning the person who has become known as Hiawatha on close examination are found to describe two very different personages.