Clan affiliation was/is traditionally inherited through the mothers line, because the tsalagi are a matrilineal people. If the clan affiliation is not known or passed down, it is very rare that it will be identified. The task is made very difficult because there was no record of clan membership kept on file.

Clan structure was and still should be the basic cohesion and social infrastructure of any Cherokee nation.

Clan membership was always inherited through the mother and children belonged to their mother's clan and sat with them at the ceremonials. The children's father sat with his mother's clan. A child's uncle on his mother's side was a very important figure, and had a great deal to do with the rearing and discipline of the child. The father would be more concerned with his sister's children.

The child knew all members of the child's clan except mother and grandparents as "brothers" and "sisters". When the child grew up, he was forbidden to marry anyone in this group.

The next most important clan to the child was his father's clan. Everyone one in it was known to the child as a "father", a "father's sister" or a "grandmother". Women who married "father's" were called "step parents" if they were of a different clan than the child's, and "mothers" if they were of the child's clan. All children of "father's" were known as "brother's and sister's"

There was love and respect between children and their father, but it was the mother's brother, as a member of their own clan who had the most to say about their upbringing. Clans are/were considered close family (brothers, sisters, etc).

Clan membership was essential to one's existence within a Cherokee society because of the protection of the kinship system. A Cherokee clan determined a person's political alignment and his role in society. Kinship, through the laws of the clan, governed social relationships, dictated possible marriage partners, designated friends, designated enemies and regulated behavior through the system such as which kinsmen had to be respected and with which kinsmen one could be intimate. The clan provided many important functions including child care for orphans and the destitute, hospitality for visiting clan members from other towns.

It was also the clan who protected, supported, and looked out for its own. Clan loyalty was and still should be the strongest bond among any Cherokee.