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Indian Confederation
A political league for offense and defense was sometimes
formed by two or more tribes, who entered into a compact or formal statement of
principles to govern their separate and collective action. A looser, less
formal, and less cohesive alliance of tribes was sometimes formed to meet some
grave temporary emergency. The unit of a confederation is the organized tribe,
just as the clan or gene is the unit of the tribe. The confederation has a supreme
council composed of representatives form the several contracting tribes of which
it is composed. The tribes forming a confederation surrendered to the league
certain powers and rights which they had exercised individually. The executive,
legislative, and judicial functions of the confederation were
exercised by the supreme council through instruments appointed in the
compact or afterward devised. Every tribe of the confederation was
generally entitled to representation in the supreme federal council.
The chiefs of the federal council and the sub-chiefs of each tribe constituted the local council of the tribe. The
confirmation of officials and their installation were functions delegated to the
officers of the confederation. The supreme federal council had practically the
same officers as a tribal council, namely, a speaker, fire-keeper, doorkeeper,
and wampum-keeper or annalist.
In the Iroquoian confederation the original 5
tribes severally had a supreme war chief, the name and the title of whom were
hereditary in certain specified clans. The supreme federal council, sitting as a
court without a jury, heard and determined causes in accordance with established
principles and rules. The representation in the council of the Iroquois
confederation was not based on the clan as its unit, for many clans had no
representative in the federal council, while others had several. The supreme
federal council of this confederation was organized on the basis of tribal
phratries or brotherhoods of tribes, of which one phratry acted as do the
presiding judges of a court sitting without a jury, having power to confirm, or
on constitutional or other grounds to reject, the votes or conclusions of the
two other phratries acting individually, but having no right to discuss any
question beyond suggesting means to the other phratries for reaching an
agreement or compromise, in the event that they offer differing votes or
opinions, and at all times being jealously careful of the customs, rules,
principles, and precedents of the council, requiring procedure strictly to
conform to these where possible. The constituent tribes of the Iroquois
confederation, the Mohawk,
Oneida,
Onondaga,
Cayuga, and
Seneca, constituted
three tribal phratries, of which the Mohawk and Seneca formed the first, the
Oneida and Cayuga the second, and the Onondaga the third; but in ceremonial and
festal assemblies the last tribe affiliated with the Mohawk-Seneca phratry.
Among the looser confederations, properly alliances, may be mentioned that of
the Chippewa,
Ottawa, and
Potawatomi; the 7 council fires of the
Dakota; and the
alliance of the tribes of Virginia and Maryland called the
Powhatan confederacy.
To these may be added the loose Caddo confederacy, which, like the others, was
held together largely by religious affiliation. The records are insufficient to
define with accuracy the political organization of these groups. Additional Indian History
Resources:
The books presented are for their
historical value only and are not
the opinions of the Webmasters of
the site.
Handbook of American Indians, 1906
Indian Tribal History
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