stom the leaders are chosen from among the men, and the affairs
which concern the tribe are settled by a council of ancients, it would
yet seem that they only represented the women, and assisted in the
discussion of subjects which principally related to that sex."[50]

[49] _Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the
History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the
United States_, 6 vols., Vol. III, p. 195. See also _Notes on
the Iroquois_ and _The Indian in his Wigwam_.

[50] Heriot, _op. cit._, pp. 321-322.

These remarkable social and domestic conditions were common to the
American Indians under the maternal system. The direct influence of
women, as directors through the men, is a circumstance of much
interest. Among the Senecas, an Iroquoian tribe with the complete
maternal family, the authority was very certainly in the hands of the
women. Morgan quotes an account of their family system, given by the
Rev. Ashur Wright for many years a resident among the Senecas, and
familiar with their language and customs.

"As to their family system, it is probable that one clan
predominated (in the houses), the women taking in husbands,
however, from other clans, and sometimes for novelty, some
of their sons bringing in their young wives, until they felt
brave enough to leave their mothers. Usually the female
portion ruled the house, and were doubtless clannish enough
about it. The stores were in common, but woe to the luckless
husband or lover who was too shiftless to do his share of
the providing. No matter how many children or whatever goods
he might have in the house, he might at any time be ordered
to pack up his blanket and budge, and after such orders it
would not be healthful for him to attempt to disobey; the
house would be too hot for him, and unless saved by the
intercession of some aunt or grandmother, he must retreat to
his own clan, or, as was often done, go and start a new
matrimonial alliance in some other. The women were the great
power among the clans as everywhere else. They did not
hesitate, when occasion required, to 'knock off the horns,'
as it was technically called, from the head of a chief and
send him back to the ranks of the warrior. The original
nomination of the chief also always rested with them."

Mr. Morgan affirms his acceptance of the Indian w