Note 169 — Chapter VI · - GENTES IN OTHER TRIBES OF THE GANOWÁNIAN FAMILY.

An Ojibwa sachem, Ke-we′-kons, who died about 1840, at the age of ninety years, when asked by my informant why he did not retire from office and give place to his son, replied, that his son could not succeed him; that the right of succession belonged to his nephew, E-kwä′-ka-mik, who must have the office. This nephew was a son of one of his sisters. From this statement it follows that descent, anciently, and within a recent period, was in the female line. It does not follow from the form of the statement that the nephew would take by hereditary right, but that he was in the line of succession, and his election was substantially assured.