Note 589 — Chapter V · ORIGINS OF THESE BELIEFS Critical Examination of Preceding Theories

The proper names of the gentes, says Boas in regard to the Tlinkit, are derived from their respective totems, each gens having its special names. The connection between the name and the (collective) totem is not very apparent sometimes, but it always exists (Vth Rep. of the Committee, etc., p. 25). The fact that individual forenames are the property of the clan, and characterize it as surely as the totem, is also found among the Iroquois (Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 78), the Wyandot (Powell, Wyandot Government, in Ist Rep., p. 59), the Shawnee, Sauk and Fox (Morgan, Ancient Society, pp. 72, 76-77) and the Omaha (Dorsey, Omaha Sociology, in IIIrd Rep., pp. 227 ff.). Now the relation between forenames and personal totems is already known (see above, p. 157).