Note 3 — Chapter I · INTRODUCTORY.—INDIAN TRIBES EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
Reading edition
Schoolcraft, Oneota, 172.
The extraordinary figures intended to represent tortoises, deer, snakes, and other animals, which are often seen appended to Indian treaties, are the totems of the chiefs, who employ these devices of their respective clans as their sign manual. The device of his clan is also sometimes tattooed on the body of the warrior.
The word tribe might, perhaps, have been employed with as much propriety as that of clan, to indicate the totemic division; but as the former is constantly employed to represent the local or political divisions of the Indian race, hopeless confusion would arise from using it in a double capacity.