The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898 Page: 30
334 p. : ill., ports., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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30 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
were, divided into two such bands, each with a chief. The only two
of whom we have any knowledge did not agree in the policy they
were to pursue toward the white people. But tribal law did not ad-
mit of separation; and the advocate of peace was overruled, and all
involved in common destruction. The Tonkaways, also a tribe low
in the social scale, had this division into two equal classes; but they
had, also, as had many other tribes, a secondary division into classes,
each of whom was designated by the name of some beast or bird,
and had a chief. Theoretically, they were married by clans, though
to all appearance they were individual families, each occupying a
tent or hut. The affection of the men for their wives and children
was to all appearance the same as in civilized nations. But their
way of designating kinship showed that it was clanship. The chil-
dren all belonged to the mother's clan. The mother's sister was not
the aunt, but ranked as mother, and her children were brothers and
sisters, not cousins; while the mother's brother was uncle, and his
children cousins. The father's sister was aunt, and her children
cousins of his children; but his brother was not uncle, but counted
as father, and his children brothers and sisters. There was some
property-a few utensils and horses-but, upon the death of the
owner, his children did not inherit, because they did not belong to
his clan; but his nephews and nieces inherited, because they be-
longed to his clan.
This curious arrangement preserved the equality of the members
of the tribe, whose government was a pure democracy. The men of
the nation assembled to discuss the policy of their small state in
-two bands, on either side of a council fire, or place marked as such,
for it was often imaginary. The speeches were made by chiefs of
clans, and the vote taken of all the men. Such a council they held
in this city when it was a small group of cabins in the wilderness in
1841, upon the occasion of the death of a chief, to select a suc-
cessor. Their sessions were long, and discussion very earnest. A
delegation of Lipans, with whom they were in alliance, attended in
some advisory capacity, and the election was at last satisfactorily
adjusted.
The Caddo tribes had an identical organization, with the addi-
tion, perhaps, of more deference and ceremony in the treatment of
the chiefs. As described by Manzanet in 1692, the principal chief
of the Texas held a court, whose amusing state and ceremony sug-
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898, periodical, 1897/1898; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101009/m1/41/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.