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.
Handbook of American Indians, Frederick W. Hodge,1906
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/history/indianconf.htm
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