Descent is now in the male line, intermarriage in the gens was anciently prohibited, but the prohibition has now lost most of its force. The office of sachem was hereditary in the gens. It will be noticed that several of the above gentes are the same as among the Ojibwas.
Whether or not the Athapascans of Hudson's Bay Territory, and the Apaches of New Mexico, who are subdivisions of an original stock, are organized in gentes has not been definitely ascertained. When in the former territory, in 1861, I made an effort to determine the question among the Hare and Red Knife Athapascans, but was unsuccessful for want of competent interpreters; and yet it seems probable that if the system existed, traces of it would have been discovered even with imperfect means of inquiry. The late Robert Kennicott made a similar attempt for the author among the A-chä´-o-ten-ne, or Slave Lake Athapascans, with no better success. He found special regulations with respect to marriage and the descent of the office of sachem, which seemed to indicate the presence of gentes, but he could not obtain satisfactory information. The Kutchin (Louchoux) of the Yukon river region are Athapascans. In a letter to the author by the late George Gibbs, he remarks: "In a letter which I have from a gentleman at Fort Simpson, Makenzie river, it is mentioned that among the Louchoux or Kutchin there are three grades or classes of society--undoubtedly a mistake for totem, though the totems probably differ in rank, as he goes on to say--that a man does not marry into his own class, but takes a wife from some other; and that a chief from the highest may marry with a woman of the lowest without loss of caste. The children belong to the grade of the mother; and the members of the same grade in the different tribes do not war with each other."
Among the Kolushes of the Northwest Coast, who affiliate linguistically though not closely with the Athapascans, the organization into gentes exists. Mr. Gallatin remarks that they are "like our own Indians, divided into tribes or clans; a distinction of which, according to Mr. Hale, there is no trace among the Indians of Oregon. The names of the tribes [gentes] are those of animals, namely: Bear, Eagle, Crow, Porpoise and Wolf.... The right of succession is in the female line, from uncle to nephew, the principal chief excepted, who is generally the most powerful of the family."[182]