Like other primitive peoples, the Wyandots had evolved a way of living together. They had made rules and established customs for the family, the clan, and the tribe. The unit of this system was the clan,1 not the individual, not the family.

The Wyandot tribe was divided into twelve clans or gentes. In theory, at least, all the members of a clan were related by blood. While there was a well-defined system of consanguinity, expressed in such terms as "father," "mother," "uncle," "cousin," etc., every man of a clan was supposed to be brother to every other man in it; and the women were sisters, and sisters to each and every man. For this reason each individual was compelled to marry outside the clan. To marry in it would be, according to this theory, the marriage of brothers and sisters. The names of these clans are:

1. Big Turtle
2. Little Turtle
3. Mud Turtle
4. Wolf
5. Bear
6. Beaver
7. Deer
8. Porcupine
9. Striped Turtle
10. Highland Turtle
11. Snake
12. Hawk

The Wyandot clans stood in different degrees of dignity. The older clans were first in importance and influence. The clans had a certain rank or order, called the Order of Precedence. The names of the clans are set down above according to this order. The Big Turtle Clan is the first, the oldest, and the most honorable clan in the Wyandot tribe. It was sometimes spoken of as the royal house of To-wa' ra.

1) Genus is a better word. It is in fact the proper word. But the Wyandots say clan when speaking of this tribal subdivision. And I have adhered to their custom.

Each clan had a government of its own, at the head of which stood the clan council. This council was composed of at least four women and one man. There might be as many women as the council should determine, but there could be but one man. The man was selected by the women, and was chief of the clan. The clan council administered the clan affairs, civil and criminal. Only when a tribal question was involved was there any appeal from the decision of the clan council to the tribal council.

The allegiance of the citizen was first to his clan, then to his tribe. The right of private redress was surrendered by the individual to his clan, but there was no very strict adherence to this law. The clan was bound to secure an accommodation of his complaints and avenge his wrongs.

The Wyandot clans were grouped into phratries or brotherhoods. The first phratry consisted of the following clans:

1. Bear
2. Deer
3. Snake
4. Hawk

The second phratry consisted of the following clans:

1. Big Turtle
2. Little Turtle
3. Mud Turtle
4. Beaver
5. Porcupine
6. Striped Turtle
7. Highland Turtle

Standing between these phratries was the Wolf Clan with a cousin relation to each, and to the individual clans of each. The Wolf Clan was the mediator, the executive power, and the umpire of the Wyandots. The term "executive power" had not so broad a meaning as with the modern governments. It implied only that the Wolf Clan enforced all orders of the tribal council – had charge of the council house, was in command of the tribe when the people were migrating. And had charge of the means for tribal defense.

The gens followed the woman. The children belonged to her clan. If a man of the Deer Clan married a woman of the Porcupine Clan, their children would belong to the Porcupine Clan, etc. Children could not inherit the property of the father, for that would take the property out of the clan of the father, and was not permissible. His property descended to his relatives through his mother. The woman is by law the head of the Wyandot family.

The following clans of the Wyandot tribe are now extinct:

1. Mud Turtle
2. Beaver
3. Striped Turtle
4. Hawk

The origin of these clans is hidden in the obscurity of great antiquity. They probably resulted ultimately from the experiences of the primary people with the various forms of the family tried out in savagery. They came to be enshrouded in religious mysteries. We learn something of them from the Wyandot mythology, or folklore.

The ancient Wyandot came to believe that they were descended from those animals for which their clans were named. But the particular animals from which they were descended were different from the animals of the same species of today. They were deities. They could and often did assume and retain the forms of men and women. The animals of like kind, of our time, are descended from them. Those ancient Animals were, in some sense, creators of the universe.

The Big Turtle made the Great Island, as North America was called by the Wyandot, and he is supposed to bear it on his back to this day. The Little Turtle made the sun, moon, and many of the stars. The Mud Turtle made a hole through the Great Island for the sun to pass through back to the cast after setting at night, so he could rise upon a new day. While making this hole through the Great Island the Mud Turtle turned aside from her work long enough to fashion the future home of the Wyandot. Their happy hunting grounds to which they go after death. The sun shines there at night –our night – while on his way back to the east. This land is called the Land of the Little People.

The Little People were a race of pigmies created to assist the Wyandot, and were possessed of great supernatural power. They live there below our land, and they preserve their land. In it they maintain the ancient customs, habits, beliefs, language, and government of the Wyandot for their use after they leave this world by death.

All Wyandot proper names had their foundation in this clan system. They were clan names.

The laws governing the formation of clan proper names demanded that they be derived from some part, habit, action, environment, or peculiarity of the animal from which the clan was supposed to be descended. Or, in some instances they might be derived from some property, law, or peculiarity of the element in which such animal lived. Thus a proper name was always a distinctive badge of the clan bestowing it.

The parents were not permitted to name the child. That was the function of the clan. Names were given but once a year, and always at the anniversary of the Green Corn Feast. In old times, formal adoptions could be made at no other time. The name was given by the clan chief. He was a civil officer of both his clan and the tribe. At an appointed period in the ceremonies of the feast, each clan took' an assigned position, which formerly was the Order of Precedence, and parents having children to be named filed before him in the order of the ages of such children. The council women stood by the clan chief, and announced to him the name of each child presented, for all clan proper names were made and selected by the councilwomen. The chief then bestowed the name upon the child. This he might do by simply the name to the parents, or by taking the child in his arms and addressing it by the name selected for it.

This manner of naming was advantageous. A man disclosed his clan in telling his name. The clan was his mother; he was the child of the clan; his name was his badge and always a sure means of identification.

Marriage was largely a clan matter. A man desiring a certain girl for a wife went first to see her mother. Or he might send his mother on this business. If the suitor was looked upon with favor, the matter was submitted to the clan council. If no objection was found, then the engagement was announced. An objection by the clan council might be over ruled by the parents, but this was not often done. The man was obliged to make such presents to the girl's mother, as he was able. The marriage was set for a day before the end of the moon in which the engagement was made. And it was almost always celebrated by a feast and dancing. The ceremony was very simple, usually the announcement by the clan chief that the young people had decided to enter the marriage relation. But there might be such ceremonial as the parties wished.

Every tribe owned an area of land on which it lived. This land was held in common, and its use was free under certain regulations. The Wyandot cultivated crops of corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco. Their lands were divided into cleared fields and wooded tracts of hunting grounds. They held, under authority of the Six Nations, much of the land south and west of the Great Lakes. They could not use so vast a country, and they permitted the native tribe, to remain in it. Other tribes they permitted to settle in it – the Delaware, Shawnees, and others who had been crowded off their ancient possessions to the eastward by the whites.

Before clan chiefs could become members of the tribal council it was necessary that they be inaugurated or installed with certain ceremonies called investiture. This investiture was a function of the tribe.

For misconduct these clan chiefs could be deposed and expelled from the tribal council. This deposition was effected by the tribe. But the tribe could not deprive a chief of his clan office. That was a clan matter.

The tribal council administered the tribal affairs and determined, the relations to other tribes. It was composed of the tribal chief, to some extent hereditary, and the clan chiefs. Women could not become members. Distinguished citizens of the tribe might be called to the council fire. A question was decided by a vote, which was by clans. Women could appear before the council and urge any action. A matter of supreme importance was submitted to a vote of the tribe for settlement, and women had the right of suffrage.

Indians were the strictest people in the world as to the forms and ceremonies incident to their civil and religious life. Listeners were appointed to stand by their priests when rituals were recited. If a syllable was omitted, the ceremony had to be repeated.

There was, with the Wyandot a sort of dual tribal government. There was a War Chief, and a military organization over which he presided. The War Chief was usually appointed by the sachem or head chief, and was often called the Little Chief, and sometimes the War Pole. In time of war the civil government was subverted, and the military government ruled the tribe. The War Chief was then the head of all tribal affairs. He announced his assumption of power by erecting a war pole in front of the council house. It was taken down when the war was concluded, and the civil power reinstated.