Clans and Tribes.%--All the families living in such a house traced descent from a common female ancestor, and formed a clan.

Each clan had its own name,--usually that of some animal, as the Wolf, the Bear, or the Turtle,--its own sachem or civil magistrate, and its own war chiefs, and owned all the food and all the property, except weapons and ornaments, in common.

A number of such clans made a tribe, which had one language and was governed by a council of the clan sachems.
[Illustration: Seneca long house] %60.

The Three Indian Races.%--With slight exceptions, the tribes living east of the Mississippi are divided, by those who have studied their languages, into three great groups: 1.

The Muskhogees, who lived south of the Tennessee River and comprised the Creek, the Seminole, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw tribes.
2.