STATUS OF lEOQUOIS WOMAN HEWITT 485 



strings of wampum — 20 strings for the woman's life and 10 strings 

 for that of the man ; but, if the killer were a woman who had taken 

 the life of another woman, the legal tender in this case was fixed at 

 40 strings of wampum. 



This conclusively shows that the life of a woman was regarded 

 as of double the value of that of a man to the community. This law 

 was enacted for the express purpose of suppressing blood feuds 

 which had been sapping the lives of the brave and had been the 

 source of constant fears. 



This great respect for the person of the woman among the Iroquois 

 was thus manifest everywhere. In two of the rituals of the con- 

 dolence and installation council the following noteworthy language 

 occurs concerning the esteem in which woman was held, namely: 

 " The Creator of our kind has indeed endowed the person of our 

 mother (the woman), with high honor and also with the full measure 

 of mind and reason. Give heed, therefore, to her words of 

 admonition and advice." 



A basic rule of the constitution of the League of the Iroquois 

 provided in the event of the extinction of an ohwachira by the 

 death of its women, which possessed chief ship titles, that, for the 

 preservation of this title, the federal council should place it in trust 

 with a sister ohwachira of the same clan to which the moribund 

 ohwachira belonged, during the pleasure of the federal council of 

 the league. This provision was essential since no new federal chief- 

 ships were instituted after the death of Deganawida, and it was a 

 requirement of the constitution that all seats of federal chiefs should 

 be kept filled. 



The mothers and adult women of an ohwachira possessed the in- 

 herent right to hold councils, such as those at which candidates for 

 chieftain and war chiefs were nominated by them. Such a council 

 of women formulated for discussion by the federal council some press- 

 ing proposition, in which they might be joined by a sister ohwachira ; 

 that is to say, it exercised the right of initiative. In like manner, 

 such a council proposed to the federal council the submission to the 

 suifrages of the people, including children (the mothers exercising 

 the right to cast their votes), any question which might be agitating 

 the minds of the people; that is to say, it exercised the right of 

 referendum. The federal chief tainess exercised the duty of initiating 

 the move for the recall of the federal chief of her ohwacliira who had 

 persistently broken his vows of proper official behavior, in accord- 

 ance with the law governing her position; that is to say, she exer- 

 cised the right of recall. 



One or more ohwachira, as has already been stated, constituted a 

 clan. Where there are more than one ohwachira, they were united 



