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In addition, Tooker does not specify that Morgan, although an attorney, was not the tribe’s attorney, which was actually John Martaindale, nor was Morgan an expert witness.  Morgan was simply a private citizen offering suggestions and expressing an opinion, which had no impact on the outcome of the legal proceedings…a good public relations display by Morgan, but no tangible action or production that benefited the Indians.

 

Named after Lewis Henry Morgan, 'Morganism' is modern cultural anthropology on steroids.  Contrary to the hero worship and popular belief among cultural anthropologists, Morgan never represented Indians as an attorney and his kinship studies were not intended for their benefit.  His studies were self-serving, 'logical and scientific arrangements' to “prove” the Indians were savages and did not own the lands they claimed.  Morgan’s kinship studies along with the attending inheritance and property rights research were intended for the benefit of his clients, the railroads, mining and banking interest…representing the Indians in any legal issue regarding land would have been a conflict of interest, unethical and illegal, even for the nineteenth century.

 

Tooker is critical of Adam Kuper’s assessment of Morgan…

 

“ In “The Development of Lewis Henry Morgan’s Evolutionism” (1985); Adam Kuper has attempted to identify the sources of these differences using a familiar method: Finding in earlier publications, especially those almost contemporaneous, ideas that bear some resemblance to Morgan’s that Morgan might have known of, Kuper infers that these works influenced Morgan’s own. .. This article forms the basis of Chapter 3, “Lewis Henry Morgan and Ancient Society,” in Kuper’s The Invention of Primitive Society (1988). ” (Tooker (1992)

 

…while Morgan’s real intent appears to have been solidly grounded, at least in part, on the social change observations and avocations expressed by French, Jesuit priest, Father Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix, 1744;  Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton 1797  and other social anthropologist of the era, who were analyzing languages and other criteria as a means to trace the origins of the American Indian.

 

Morgan’s motivation was less altruistic than the cultural anthropologists have deluded themselves into believing.  His motivation was the need to circumvent the kinship transfer of property rights among the various Indian tribes in order to obtain land for the railroads, by having the government evict the Indians from their land rather than paying monetary compensation.

 

To accomplish his objective, Morgan developed a legal strategy which encompassed the three criteria stipulated by the Attorney General of the United

 

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