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 conserve 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 hear
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,
expressed 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 chieftainships, 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 north 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 hands 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.
Handbook of American Indians, Frederick W. Hodge,1906
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/history/indianchief.htm
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