GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES 273it is much simpler and comprises only a clan administration with one
elder.
The Clan Administration performs the functions of general police in
the clan; it executes the orders and regulations from higher authorities.
collects taxes from the entire clan. distril-utes the tax burden among
its members, gives permission to clan members to absent themselves
for short periods. and keeps a record of all events and changes in the
clan. The Native Administration supervises and inspects regularly the
clan administrations under its jurisdiction. It is the executor of instruc-
tions from the central administration; it must protect the rights of
the natives against interference and abuse of. local officials, outsiders.
and merchants. But it has no initiative of action, except in some rare
emergency situations. 1
These two bodies of native self-government are under the jurisdic-
tion of the Land Police (zemskaia politsiia) which. as we know. is a
part of the regular Russian administrative hierarchy. Its main function
is to link the natives with the Russian authorities. It transmits all regu-
lations from the central offices and it can issue limited executive or-
ders of its own.^2
In spite of its use of the term clan, the system was not truly based
on clan and family groupings. Changed conditions had, by the end
of the 18th century. broken down the unity and significance of clan
organization in many instances. The clan had become more of a ter-
ritorial and administrative unit rather than a kinship group. The
process of disintegration of the clan had gone so far that artificial
"clans" were set up to take care of natives that had lost their member-
ship in well defined kinship groups (especially in and near towns).
Several clans combined are to have their Duma of the Steppe (step-
naia duma) which replaces the kontora of the 18th and the zemskaia
izba of the 17th centuries. The Duma is composed of a principal clan
chief (glavnyi rodovoi nachal'nik), deputies elected among the native
nobility or prominent individuals, and its own clerk. It is primarily a
fiscal and economic institution, keeping a permanent census of the
tribes and accounting for the monies and property held in common.
It should help to promote agriculture, and supervise the proper
supplying of the natives with foodstuffs. It deals only with the head
and elder of the clans, not with individual members of the tribes.:3
1 PSZ 29,126, pars. 187-201.
2 The Land Police can try to settle disputes between clans, reconcile natives after
their own courts have failed to reach a settlement, and if it fails too, forward the
matter to a regular Russian court. PSZ 29,126, pars. 214-222.
3 PSZ 29,126, pars. 114-121, 202-222.