3. Sauks and Foxes. These tribes are consolidated into one, and have the following gentes:
1. Wolf. 2. Bear. 3. Deer. 4. Elk. 5. Hawk. 6. Eagle. 7. Fish. 8. Buffalo. 9. Thunder. 10. Bone. 11. Fox. 12. Sea. 13. Sturgeon. 14. Big Tree.[175]
Descent, inheritance, and the rule requiring marriage out of the gens, are the same as among the Miamis. In 1869 they numbered but seven hundred, which would give an average of fifty persons to the gens. The number of gentes still preserved affords some evidence that they were several times more numerous within the previous two centuries.
4. Menominees and Kikapoos. These tribes, which are independent of each other, are organized in gentes, but their names have not been procured. With respect to the Menominees it may be inferred that, until a recent period, descent was in the female line, from the following statement made to the author, in 1859, by Antoine Gookie, a member of this tribe. In answer to a question concerning the rule of inheritance, he replied: "If I should die, my brothers and maternal uncles would rob my wife and children of my property. We now expect that our children will inherit our effects, but there is no certainty of it. The old law gives my property to my nearest kindred who are not my children, but my brothers and sisters, and maternal uncles." It shows that property was hereditary in the gens, but restricted to the agnatic kindred in the female line.
Rocky Mountain Tribes. 1. Blood Blackfeet. This tribe is composed of the five following gentes:
1. Blood. 2. Fish Eaters. 3. Skunk. 4. Extinct Animal. 5. Elk.[176]
Descent is in the male line, but intermarriage in the gens is not allowed.
2. Piegan Blackfeet. This tribe has the eight following gentes:
1. Blood. 2. Skunk. 3. Web Fat. 4. Inside Fat. 5. Conjurers. 6. Never Laugh. 7. Starving. 8. Half Dead Meat.[177]
Descent is in the male line, and intermarriage in the gens is prohibited. Several of the names above given are more appropriate to bands than to gentes; but as the information was obtained from the Blackfeet direct, through competent interpreters, (Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Culbertson, the latter a Blackfeet woman) I believe it reliable. It is possible that nicknames for gentes in some cases may have superseded the original names.
