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Show IQOO] INDIAN LIFE 221 vironment, but the group organization undoubtedly led to the communal houses of the Iroquois and the Pueblo, of the Kwakiutl and the Mandan, and of numerous other tribes as well; and where communal houses did not exist a similar local clustering of individual lodges on a basis of relationship tended to appear. ^ Moreover, the system of social organization determined other arrangements still more domestic in character. The position and influence of the woman in the " long house" of the Iroquois have been noted. It was not an exceptional case; much nonsense has been written and believed regarding the " squaw" N in Indian society. She is pictured as a drudge and -* slave, while her lord and master, dignified and lazy, is supposed never to lift his hand to work except under stress of direst necessity. Such ideas are very far from the truth. The division of labor between the sexes is not very unequal in the majority of tribes, where the hunting- life entails prolonged and strenuous exertion on the part of the men; and the independence and authority of the woman in household affairs are usually recognized and often exerted. The lines separating the work of the menv from that of the women are sharply drawn, and\ interference from either side is seldom brooked. ' The care of the lodge, preparation of food, and making of clothing and^ liousehold utensils fall to the woman; while the arts of hunting and war, with the manufacture of weapons, are the peculiar care of |
