The Iroquoian clan is an intratribal exogamic body of uterine kin, real, or such by legal fiction, regimented for the purpose of securing and promoting their social and political welfare. The clan has a name, which serves as a class or preferably unit name for its members, and which is derived usually from some animal or bird or reptile belonging to the habitat of the ancestors of this body of kin, or to its customary tutelary genius. The lineal descent of blood, the inheritance of property, both personal and common, and the hereditary right of eligibility to public office and trust are traced in the clan through the female line attained through the action and interaction of its constitutive units—the ohwachira (the uterine families). The Iroquoian clan is constituted organically of one or more ohwachira; its chief or chieftains came to it through its constituent ohwachira which may have possessed such officers. A large number of the characteristics of the ohwachira may be predicated of the clan, for the reason that the ohwachira gave up for administration to this larger grouping a number of their functions. So that a clear knowledge of the ohwachira is first needed to understand what a clan is. The following summary of the characteristic rights and privileges of an Iroquoian clan may be enlightening: (1) The right to a distinctive name, which an invariable custom derives from some animal, bird, or reptile, characteristic of the habitat, which may have been regarded as a guardian genius or protecting deity. (2) Representation by one or more chiefs in the tribal council. (3) An equitable share in the communal property of the tribe. (4) The right and obligation to have its nominations for chief and subchief of the clan confirmed and installed by officers of the tribal council in earlier times, but since the institution of the league, by officers of the federal council. (5) The right to the protection of the tribe of which it is a constituent member. (6) The right of the titles of the chiefships and subchiefships hereditary in its ohwachira(s). (7) The right to certain songs, chants, dances, and religious observances. (8) The right of its men or women, or both together, to meet in council. (9) The right to the use of certain names of persons, which are given to its members. (10) The right to adopt aliens through the action of a constituent ohwachira. (11) The right of its members to a common burial ground. (12) The right of the mothers of constituent ohwachira(s), in which such official titles are inherent, to nominate candidates for chief and subchief; some clans have more than one of each class of chiefs. (13) The right of these same mothers to take the prescribed steps for impeaching and deposing their chiefs and subchiefs. (14) The right to share in the religious rites, ceremonies, and public festivals of the tribe.