Siouan Sociology | Page 6

purposes, such as war or the buffalo hunt. The exponent of the phratry was the tiyotipi or "soldiers' lodge," which has been described at length by Dr Riggs.(3)
While no political organization has been known to exist within the historic period over the whole Dakota nation, the traditional alliance of the "Seven Council-fires" is perpetuated in the common name Dakota, signifying allied, friendly.
Among the Dakota it is customary for the rank and title of chief to descend from father to son, unless some other near relative is ambitious and influential enough to obtain the place. The same is claimed also in regard to the rank of brave or soldier, but this position is more dependent on personal bravery. While among the Omaha and Ponka a chief can not lead in war, there is a different custom among the Dakota. The Sisseton chief Standing Buffalo told Little Crow, the leader of the hostile Santee in the Minnesota outbreak of 1862, that, having commenced hostilities with the whites, he must fight it out without help from him, and that, failing to make himself master of the situation, he should not flee through the country of the Sisseton.
Regarding chieftainship among the Dakota, Philander Prescott(4) says:
The chieftainship is of modern date, there being no chiefs hefore the whites came. The chiefs have little power. The chief's band is almost always a kin totem which helps to sustain him. The chiefs have no votes in council; there the majority rules and the voice of the chief is not decisive till then.
On the death of a chief, the nearest kinsman in the right line is eligible. If there are no kin, the council of the band can make a chief. Civil chiefs scarcely ever make a war party.
The Dakota woman owns the tipi. If a man has more wives than one, they have separate tipis, or they arrange to occupy different sides of one. Sometimes the young man goes to live with his wife's kindred, but in such matters there is no fixed rule. To purchase a wife was regarded the most honorable form of marriage, though elopement was sometimes resorted to.

THE ASINIBOIN
The Asiniboin were originally part of the Wazi-kute gens of the Yanktonai (Iha?ktonwanna) Dakota. According to the report of E.T. Denig to Governor I.I. Stevens,(5) "the Asiniboin call themselves Dakota, meaning Our people." The Dakota style them Hohe, "rebels," but Denig says the term signifies "fish eaters," and that they may have been so called from the fact that they subsisted principally on fish while in British territory.
Lists of the gentes of this people have been recorded by Denig, Maximilian, and Hayden, but in the opinion of the present writer they need revision.
Asiniboin gentes
Denig Maximilian Hayden We-che-ap-pe-nah, Itschcabin��, Les Wi-ic-ap-i-nah, 60 lodges, under gens des filles. Girls' band. Les Yeux Gris E-an-to-ah, Stone Jatonabin��, Les I'-an-to'-an. Indians, the gens des roches, Either Inyan original the Stone Indians tonwan, Stone appellation for of the English. Village or the whole nation; Call themselves Ihanktonwan, End 50 lodges, under "Eascab." village or Premier qui Voile. Yankton. J.O.D.) Wah-to-pan-ah, Otaopabin��, Les Wah-to'-pap-i-nah Canoe Indians, 100 gens des canots. lodges, under Serpent. Wah-to-pah-han-da-toh, Wat��pachnato, Les Wah-to'-pah-an-da-to, Old Gauch��'s gens, gens de l'age. Gens du Gauch�� or i.e., Those who Left Hand. row in canoes; 100 lodges, under Trembling Hand. Wah-ze-ah we-chas-ta, O-see-gah (of Wah-zi-ah, or Northern People (so Lewis and Clark, To-kum-pi, Gens du called because they Discoveries, p. Nord. came from the north in 43, 1806). 1839); 60 lodges, under Le Robe de Vent.
The following gentes have not been collated: Of Maximilian's list, Otopachgnato, les gens du large, possibly a duplication, by mistake, of Watopachnato, les gens de l'age; Tschantoga, les gens des bois; Tanin-tauei, les gens des osayes; Ch��bin, les gens des montagnes. Of Hayden's list, Min'-i-shi-nak'-a-to, gens du lac.
The correct form in the Yankton dialect of the first name is Witcinyanpina (Wicinyanpina), girls; of the second, probably Inyantonwan (Inyan tonwan); the third and fourth gentes derive their names from the verb watopa, to paddle a canoe; the fifth is Waziya witcacta (Waziya wicasta). Tschan in Tschantoga is the German notation of the Dakota tcan (can), tree, wood. Cha in Ch��bin is the German notation of the Dakota word he, a high ridge of hills, a mountain.
In his report to Governor Stevens, from which the following information respecting the Asiniboin is condensed, Denig used the term "band" to denote a gens of the tribe, and "clans" instead of corporations, under which latter term are included the feasting and dancing societies and the orders of doctors, shamans, or theurgists.
These bands are distinct and occupy different parts of the country, although they readily combine when required by circumstances, such as scarcity of game or an attack by a large body of the enemy.
The roving tribes call no general council with