reality, the validity of human reasoning, the ultimate principles of being, the emergence of value in a world of incessant change and flux-these are the essential philosophical problems to be studied and restudied, according to Mr. Whitehead, in the light of the laws and theories of the exact sciences. This is a tenable position, and it implies at least, that philosophy is not a branch of ethics, nor an adjunct to theology, nor a set of mere conjectures incapable of verification, but an independent discipline possessed of a good title to the field it cultivates.

AMERICAN INDIAN COMPOSITIONS REFLECTING THE

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE

ON

TRIBES

BY GEORGE H. DAUGHERTY, JR.

NE OF THE MOST important factors influencing the Indian's point of view was the social and political organization of the tribes. It was also a circumstance productive of several notable pieces of literature. The egocentric or individualistic point of view of the redskin has already been illustrated through selections quoted in the preceding articles of this series. Nevertheless, the Indian was not a solitary; nor in spite of all his wood craft was he able to survive alone in the wilderness. The hostile environment, especially in the winter, the uncertain food supply (particularly among those tribes which depended most on hunting), and the continual warfare with enemy bands forced him to lead a communal existence. He was therefore gregarious in the extreme, always herding with his kind in villages or settlements, for protection, shelter, warmth, and food. No member of the group, whether it was large or small, was economically independent of the rest; nor could a few individuals remain safe and prosperous when others were in hard circumstances. There were, it is true, plutocratic tribesmen, noted for their ability to collect scalps and steal horses; but these riches mostly served to lend distinction. In such important matters as food and skins or blankets for winter, all shared to a large extent alike.

The existence of the individual tribesman was generally uncomfortable and often extremely hazardous. Let anyone who has experienced even an average winter in the lake region of the Middle West imagine himself living in a draughty tipi in a ten-below-zero spell, and dependent for his entire food supply on his ability to shoot with a bow and arrow-always with the hazard of being toma

hawked from behind by members of a hostile tribe. The thought of returning to find his whole village in ashes, and a few bloody rags the only remaining traces of his family and friends occasionally rendered thoughtful even the toughest savage. The following songs are indicative of his state of mind on such occasions.

"The Haethuka are dead,

I weep,

I walk around the village."
"The odor of death,

I discern the odor of death

In the front of my body."

The obvious result of such conditions was the communal system, whereby the food supply and other necessities of life were apportioned to each family. In many cases a large part of the food was obtained in great tribal or village "hunts", in which all available members took part. The plains Indians, especially, followed the herds of buffalo, and moved back and forth in large groups as they drove the neighboring tribes before them, or were in turn defeated." Within villages of the more sedentary tribes there were often communal houses where several families lived together. This close relation of the individual to the economic and social life of the whole group is characteristic of primitive society, and becomes even closer in the smaller groups down to the single family.

The interior organization of the Indian tribes led into the production of notable pieces of tribal literature, of which the most remarkable is the famous Iroquois "Book of Rites", a ritual of important ceremonies. An explanation of the leading features of Indian social and political organization is necessary, however, to the proper understanding of this piece of Indian literature. The basis for the government of all or most Indian tribes was the clan and council system. The clan or gens was a group of people inside the tribe, actually or theoretically related by blood. The organization was both social and political in its nature, and was usually named after some tutelary animal deity. In the clan, lineal descent, inheritance of personal property, and the hereditary right to public

1Fletcher "Omaha Music", p. 258-9.

Densmore, "Chippewa Music", II, p. 114.

McGee, "The Siouan Indians", p. 186.

+Ibid., p. 172. See also accounts cited of the Iroquois tribes.

*See J. R. Swanton, "Names and Naming", Hodge II, pp. 16-18, and Appendix G.

office are traced through the female line, while in the gens they devolve through the male line. The laws and privileges of the clan or gens, which of course had its own council, were numerous and well defined. They related to marriage, voting for chiefs and other leaders, obligations of mutual help, and re-dress of injuries. All the clans in a tribe, varying in number from two or three to ten or fifteen, were interlocked by marriage.

Many if not most communities were organized by a further development of the clan and council system, the fratry or group of clans. These frateries, of which there were any number from one to four in any given community, seem to have been political and ceremonial units. Occasionally they were exogamic; so that a man was compelled to marry outside his fratery. Among some tribes the fratery organization was temporary, and resorted to only on special occasions such as war or a buffalo hunt ; among the more advanced and best organized tribes the fratery was the controlling political unit. A typical fratery organization of a village might divide the people into two halves, "the summer people" and "the winter people”. each having charge of certain functions peculiar to their season.1o

10

Tribes were made up of any number of communities or bands, either sedentary or migratory; and their organization showed every degree of complexity. Where there was any tribal government at all, it was based on the council system. The clans held their councils and elected chiefs who in turn formed the tribal council to assist the tribal chief. In most tribal governments the civil and military functions were carefully discriminatel. "The civil government was lodged in a chosen body of men usually called chiefs, of whom there were commonly several grades. Usually the chiefs were organized in a council exercising legislative, judicial, and executive functions in matters pertaining to the welfare of the tribe. The civil chief was not by virtue of his office a military leader. Among

Most clans or gens were exogamic, i. e. allowed no members to marry within the group. A few were endogamic, to the exclusion of outside marriages. See Clark Wissler, The American Indians, p. 157. Horatio Hale, The Iroquois Book of Kites, and Appendix H.

"Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society, London 1877, 8Wissler, The American Indians, p. 158.

"Dorsey, "Siouan Sociology", pp. 221-2.

p. 71.

10 Wissler, op. cit., p. 158. See also J. O. Dorsey, "Siouan Sociology", pp. 238-239: Francs La Flesche, "The Osage Tribe", 36th Ann. Rep. B. A. E. 191415. J. R. Swanton, "Osage", Hodge II, pp. 156-7. J. O. Dorsey, "Omaha Sociology", pp. 226.

9911

the Iroquois a civil chief in order to go to war had to resign his civil function during his absence on the war path." The manner in which a chief was chosen varied considerably. In some loosely organized California villages the richest man was chief. Among the Sioux, leaders were chosen because of bravery and generosity, and Sious, leaders were chosen because of bravery and generosity, and were deposed when incompetent.12 It is notable that the war chief was by some tribes considered second in rank to the civil chief, whose office was hereditary.18 In a few cases the civil chieftainship was hereditary in some leading clan; but the rest of the tribe had the right to veto the candidate proposed by this clan, and cause it to nominate another.14

The largest organization of Indian government, usually within the linguistic family, was the confederacy or alliance of whole tribes. At the time of the discovery, tribal government was the usual form; confederacies were temporary, and were resorted to only for war emergencies. Most Indians had not yet attained the power of largely extended and cohesive organization.15 One outstanding exception to the above statement must nevertheless be remarked. The five Iroquoian tribes inhabiting New York, the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca, later (1722) reinforced by the Tuscarora-succeeded sometime between the years 1570 and 1600 in forming a powerful political and military league.16 It was this league which was the occasion for the famous Iroquois Book of Rites, perhaps the most notable work in all the literature of the North American Indians.17

Only the main features of the League need be mentioned here. Its basic unit was the organized tribe. The governing body was a supreme council composed of representatives elected from the constituent tribes. The individual chiefs, members of the supreme

11 Hewitt, "Government", Hodge I, p. 498.

12 Dorsey,. "Siouan Sociology", pp. 223-4.

13Warren, "History of the Ojibways", p. 319.

14 Hewitt, "Iroquois", Hodge I, p. 617.

15 Wissler. The American Indians, pp. 150 ff. Hewitt, "Government, Hodge I, D. 498, and "Confederation", pp. 337 ff.

1Wm. Beauchamp, "A History of the New York Iroquois", N. Y. State Museum, Bulletin 78, p. 153. See also the accounts in. Horatio Hale, The Iroquois Book of Rites, Lewis H. Morgan, The League of the Iroquois. New York, 1904, and Ancient Society. London, 1877.

17Dr. Brinton declares the Iroquois Book of Rites to be "one of the most remarkable native productions north of Mexico. Its authenticity and antiquity are indisputable."—Aboriginal American Authors, p. 21.