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finding others in the same plight, would cast in his lot with them and make his living mainly by plundering. According to Heckewelder: "Though there are sometimes individuals in a nation who disregard the council and good advice given by the chiefs, yet they do not meet with support so as to be able to oppose the measures of government. They are generally looked upon as depraved beings who, not daring to associate with the others, lurk about by themselves, generally bent on mischief of a minor kind, such as pilfering small articles of goods and provisions. As soon, however, as they go a step further, and become known thieves and murderers, they are considered a disgrace to the nation, and being in a manner disowned by it, they are no longer entitled to its protection."

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Heckewelder goes on to give an instance of outlawry met with by him among the Senecas: "When in the winter of 1788 and 1789, the Indian Nations were assembling at Fort Harmer where a treaty was to be held, an Indian of the Seneca Nation was one morning found dead on the bank of the river. The Cornplanter, chief of this nation, observing some uneasiness among the officers and people of the place, and fearing the murder might create undue disturbance, waited in the morning on the governor, whom he desired 'not to be uneasy about what had happened the preceding night, for the man who had been killed was of no consequence,' which statement meant that he was disowned for his bad conduct by his countrymen, and that his death would not be a loss to his nation."

While ordinary manifestations of a non-social spirit led to the exclusion of the culprit from the ranks of the clan, direct treason resulted in his immediate execution. Treason consisted in revealing the secrets of medicine preparations supposed to bring good fortune, or in giving any other information or assistance to enemies of the tribe. The criminal was tried before the tribal council, and if convicted, was put to death on the spot. Such a

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* Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, p. 67.

person was too dangerous to society to be permitted to live, even as an outlaw. Witchcraft, the injury of anyone by supernatural means, was regarded as only a more terrible form of treason.1

Tribal government, then, was not merely a question of the orderly living together of several sets of relatives; it was rather a system regulating the life of a large economic group composed of many smaller organizations of the same sort. It was, in fact,

a machine created by the women's and men's clans, and controlled by each exactly in proportion to the amount of influence exerted by each in economic life. Created and operated by the clans themselves, with a view to their own prosperity, the system needed no sanction beyond public opinion.

The government of the confederacy embodied simply a repetition of the principles animating gentile and tribal life; in other words, it was representative of the clans of the whole country of the Iroquois acting in unison. For this purpose they had been grouped in villages and in tribes, and now these latter bodies were gathered together in one great nation. The governmental activities of the confederacy were carried on by a council consisting of the gentile chiefs of all the different tribes.2 Their number, at first fifty, was afterwards but forty-eight, since two places of the original fifty were filled but once. A certain name was attached to each office, and during his term of service each incumbent was known by this instead of his own name. In a sense, therefore, the officials of the confederacy never died. Just as the gentes and the tribes were immortal, so also were those who represented them in the government of the confederacy. Of the fifty chieftainships, there were nine among the Mohawks, nine among the Oneidas, fourteen among the Onondagas, ten among the Cayugas and eight among the Senecas. There were three chiefs from each

1 See note I. Cf. Jes. Rel., LXII, 99; Morgan, “League,” p. 330; Jes. Rel., X, 223-"They also punish sorcerers severely, that is, those who use poisoning and cause death by charms; and this punishment is authorized by the consent of the whole country, so that whoever takes them in the act has full right to cleave their skulls-without fear of being called to account."

2 Cf. Morgan, Anc. Soc.," Ch. 5; Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," III, 186; Chadwick, "People of the Longhouse," p. 33.

of the Mohawk gens, and the same from the Oneidas: the Senecas, on the other hand, had eight gentes, not all of whom were represented in the council. The unrepresented gentes, however, were probably small and unimportant offshoots of older bodies. The same state of affairs is found in the other Iroquois tribes.

In council, the chiefs voted by tribes, each tribe exercising the same amount of power as any other, even though it may have had a smaller number of representatives. Unanimity was necessary for a decision. This was generally achieved through a system of voting in classes. The exact principle upon which the classes were arranged is not clear. In all probability the matter was decided upon the basis of locality; that is, if a tribe had three villages, the chiefs in each village would form a class, and vote as one man.1 Hence the final problem would involve only the agreement of three votes in order to allow the tribe to vote as a unanimous whole. It is obvious that by this system two Bear chiefs, for instance, living in different villages, might find themselves voting in different classes. Now if the gens, in the sense of a family stock, was really the unit of Iroquois politics, this would be impossible. Instead of voting by villages, the chiefs would have voted according to their gentes, all the Bears voting together, and so on. The chief was really the representative of the clan and the village, and hence was for all practical purposes more closely allied with the Wolf and Turtle chief of his own village, than with other chiefs of the same family stock, but of a different town. The method of voting in the council of the confederacy, therefore, forms only one more proof of the fact that not merely blood relationship, but also, and primarily, common economic interests formed the tie that bound the Iroquois into a society.2

1Cf. Lloyd, Appendix to Morgan's “League" (ed. 1901), p. 215—“ The division of the sachems of each tribe into classes, probably represents the original division of the tribe into villages."

2 The Seneca Tribe voted in four classes:-Class I: Turtle chief and Snipe chief. Class II: Turtle chief and Hawk chief. Class III: Bear chief and Snipe chief. Class IV: Snipe chief and Wolf chief.

Cf. Morgan, "Anc. Soc.," p. 131.

Besides the chiefs and their aids,' any other clansman or woman could come to the council and express his or her opinion. In the confederacy, as in the gens, state and government were kept in close contact. Often, if the case was an important one, nearly the whole population of all the villages from near and far would flock to the council meeting. There, for the sake of convenience, women and warriors, chiefs and old men, would often hold their separate councils; and eventually, through appointed orators, express their opinions before the council of the confederacy, with whom lay the power of final decision.2

It could

In that

The council met regularly once a year at Onondaga, a central point, and regarded as the capital of the confederacy. be summoned at any other time by any one of the tribes. case, the tribe in question fixed the date and place of meeting.* The functions of the council were twofold. In the first place, it saw to it that the internal affairs of the confederacy were in good order; it settled quarrels between the different tribes, invested chiefs with office, etc.: in the second place, it attended to the foreign relations of the confederacy; and so deliberated upon war and peace, sent and received embassies, and attended to the affairs of subjugated tribes 5

1 Morgan, Anc. Soc.," 131-132. "Each sachem had an assistant sachem, who was elected by the gens of his principal from among its members, and who was installed with the same forms and ceremonies. He was styled an aid. It was his duty to stand behind his superior on all occasions of ceremony, to act as his messenger, and in general to be subject to his directions. It gave to the aid the office of chief, and rendered probable his election as the successor of his principal after the decease of the latter."

2 Parkman, “Jesuits in North America," p. lix; Morgan, “Anc. Soc.," p. 128.

3

3 Jes. Rel., LI, 237; Morgan, “Anc. Soc.,” pp. 128, 135.

4

Lloyd, Morgan's "League" (ed. 1901), II, 244-245; The Huron council met in same manner at Ossossané. Jes. Rel., V, n. 60, p. 259, 261; XIII, 37.

5 Morgan, "Anc. Soc.,” pp. 133, 142–143. Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bul., No. 41, p. 383. Cf. Colden, "History of the Five Nations,” p. 3: "All the nations round them have for many years entirely submitted to them, and pay a yearly tribute to them in wampum; they dare neither

The confederacy, like the Tribe, had no particular machinery for executing its decisions. Anything decreed by the council would be carried out by special agents appointed for the purpose, or by each tribe as it saw fit. Certain duties were fulfilled by certain tribes. Thus one of the Onondaga councillors was the keeper and interpreter of the wampum records, while the Mohawks saw to the collection of tribute from subject tribes. There was no chief executive magistrate of the confederacy, since no member of the council could claim any higher rank than any other. If one were better known than another, it was not on account of any official distinction, but merely on account of superior ability, or fitness to represent the nation in some special transaction.1

So far, the subject under discussion has been the government of the sedentary community, as a whole. It must not be forgotten, however, that, for a large portion of the year, the men's clans led a life quite apart from the life of the village, and even while there, they regarded themselves as more or less transient sojourners; hence, the warriors had a government of their own, distinct from that of the women's clans, and of the sedentary community in which the influence of the latter tended to predominate. Among the Hurons, according to Major Powell, the military government was completely differentiated from the civil. 2 The former inhered in a military chief, and in a council composed of all the able-bodied warriors of the tribe. All councils of war were held in the cabin of the "great war captain," and condemned make war nor peace without the consent of the Mohawks. Two Old Men commonly go about every year or two to receive this tribute. . . . It is not for the sake of tribute, however, that they make war, but from the notions of glory which they have ever most strongly imprinted on their minds."

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Cf. Jes. Rel., XXXI, 89; XXXVI, 105; Chadwick, "People of the Longhouse," p. 76; Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bul., No. 41, p. 457; Schoolcraft, Hist. Ind. Tribes," III, 185; Woodward, "Wampum," pp. 16 sq.; Morgan, "Anc. Soc.," p. 149; Heckewelder, pp. 56-57, 59, n. 3; Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, pp. 518, 522.

1

Morgan, "Anc. Soc.,” pp. 128, 145; Jes. Rel., X, 231; XII, 53.

2 Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, p. 61.

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