There were several ways by which Indian slaves could obtain their freedom. Among the Huron a young brave could marry his mother’s slave, and his parents had no right to hinder him. By becoming his wife the slave became a free woman.[97] Among the southern Indians the children of slave parents were free and were considered in every respect equal to their parents’ masters.[98] Among the western Indians, upon the death of a savage, his slaves intermarried with others of their kind and lived in a separate hut as a sign that they were free since they had no master to serve. The children of such marriages were adopted into the tribe and became the children of the nation, since they were born in the country and village of the tribe. The Indians believed that the children should not be held as slaves since they “contributed nothing to their creation.”[99] In the northwest, the distinction between slave and free man was generally sharply drawn with regard to marriage, for the slave usually could not marry the free man or woman, though the Makah men frequently married slave women. The children of such marriages appear to have held “an equivocal position between free men and slaves.”[100] The most common mode of acquiring freedom was through adoption into the tribes. Among the tribes of the Great Plains and the Atlantic Slope, adoption seems to have been universally practiced. The slaves adopted usually consisted of war captives,[101] who in some instances were adopted wholesale, or who, after a period of servitude in the tribe, had proved themselves possessed of certain desirable qualities, such as bravery and strength in war or the chase. The adopted person became in every respect the peer of his fellow-tribesmen. If he showed his ability he might become of high rank in the tribe. If he were a poor hunter, a poor provider, or, above all, if he turned out to be a coward, he was despised and treated according to his demerits, probably worse than if he had been born a member of the tribe. Still, he was a member of the tribe and remained a free man, though he was deposed from man’s estate and “made a woman.” Adopted persons who showed little ability, were sometimes made to serve in the families of the influential and prominent men of the tribe; but such persons were free, even though they performed menial labor.[102]