Note 25 — Bands.

On this point, the following statement of a Piegan informant may be worthy of note: A man may go into another band and live there if he choose, nothing much being said about it. Sometimes a man may not like the chief of his own band and so go to another. There is neither announcement nor formal adoption, he simply goes there to live. For a time, it may be thrown out to him that he belongs elsewhere but after a while he is always spoken of as a member. When a band begins, it may be a group of two or three brothers, fathers, and grandfather, or a small family band (which means the same thing); later, friends or admirers of the head man in this family may join them until the band becomes very large. Bands may split in dissention, one part joining another or forming a new one. A new group is soon given a name by other people according to some habit or peculiarity. They do not name themselves.