While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Chiefs. Among the North American Indians a chief may be
generally defined as a political officer whose distinctive functions are to
execute the ascertained will of a definite group of persons united by the
possession of a common territory or range and of certain exclusive rights,
immunities, and obligations, and to con serve their customs, traditions, and
religion. He exercises legislative, judicative, and executive powers delegated
to him in accordance with custom for the conservation and promotion of the
common weal.
The wandering band of men with their women and children contains the simplest
type of chieftaincy found among the American Indians, for such a group has no
permanently fixed territorial limits, and no definite social and political
relations exist between it and any other body of persons. The clan or gens, the
tribe, and the confederation present more complex forms of social and political
organization. The clan or gens embraces several such chieftaincies, and has a
more highly developed internal political structure with definite land
boundaries. The tribe is constituted of several clans or gentes and the
confederation of several tribes. Among the different Indian communities the
social and political structure varied greatly. Many stages of social progress
lay between the small band under a single chief and the intricate permanent
confederation of highly organized tribes, with several kinds of officers and
varying grades of councils of diverse but interrelated jurisdictions. With the
advance in political organization political powers and functions were multiplied
and diversified, and the multiplicity and diversity of duties and functions
required different grades of officers to perform them; hence various kinds and
grades of chiefs are found. There were in certain communities, as the
Iroquois
and Creeks, civil chiefs and sub-chiefs, chosen for personal merit, and
permanent and temporary war chiefs. These several grades of chiefs bear
distinctive titles, indicative of their diverse jurisdiction. The title to the
dignity belongs to the community, usually to its women, not to the chief, who
usually owes his nomination to the suffrages of his female constituents, but in
most communities he is installed by some authority higher than that of his
chieftaincy. Both in the lowest and the highest form of government the chiefs
are the creatures of law, ex pressed in well-defined customs, rites, and
traditions. Only where agriculture is wholly absent may the simplest type of
chieftaincy be found.
Where the civil structure is permanent there exist permanent military chieftain
ships, as among the Iroquois. To reward personal merit and statesmanship the
Iroquois instituted a class of chiefs whose office, upon the death of the
holder, remained vacant. This latter provision was made to obviate a large
representation and avoid a change in the established roll of chiefs. They were
called "the solitary pine trees," and were installed in the same manner as the
others. They could not be deposed, but merely ostracized, if they committed
crimes rendering them unworthy of giving counsel.
Where the civil organization was of the simplest character the authority of the
chiefs was most nearly despotic; even in some instances where the civil
structure was complex, as among the
Natchez, the rule of the chiefs at times
became in a measure tyrannical, but this was due largely to the recognition of
social castes and the domination of certain religious beliefs and
considerations.
The chieftainship was usually hereditary in certain families of the community,
although in some communities any person by virtue of the acquisition of wealth
could proclaim himself a chief. Descent of blood, property, and official titles
were generally traced through the mother. Early writers usually called the chief
who acted as the chairman of the federal council the "head chief" and sometimes,
when the tribe or confederation was powerful and important, "king" or "emperor,"
as in the case of
Powhatan. In the Creek confederation and in that of the
Iroquois, the most complex aboriginal government N. of Mexico, there was, in
fact, no head chief. The first chief of the
Onondaga federal roll acted as the
chairman of the federal council, and by virtue of his office he called the
federal council together. With this all preeminence over the other chiefs ended,
for the governing power of the confederation was lodged in the federal council.
The federal council was composed of the federal chiefs of the several component
tribes; the tribal council consisted of the federal chiefs and sub-chiefs of the
tribe.
Communities are formed on the basis of a union of interests and obligations.
By the union of several rudimentary communities for mutual aid and protection,
in which each retained part of its original freedom and delegated certain social
and political powers and jurisdiction to the united community, was evolved an
assembly of representatives of the united bands in a tribal council having a
definite jurisdiction. To these chiefs were sometimes added sub-chiefs, whose
jurisdiction, though subordinate, was concurrent with that of the chiefs. The
enlarged community constitutes a tribe. From tribes were organized
confederations. There were therefore several grades of councils constituted. In
the council of the Iroquois confederation the sub-chiefs had no voice or
recognition.
Among the Plains tribes the chieftaincy seems to have been usually
non-hereditary. Any ambitious and courageous warrior could apparently, in strict
accordance with custom, make himself a chief by the acquisition of suitable
property and through his own force of character. See Social organization. (J. N.
B. H.)
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includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
