STATUS OF IROQUOIS WOMAN HEWITT 487 



trustee woman chieftain, and chief warrior (some clans have more 

 than one of each class) ; thirteenth, the right and obligation to share 

 in the religious rites, ceremonies, and public festivals of the tribe and 

 the league. It is thus seen that a large number of the essential 

 attributes of the ohwachira may be predicated Otf the clan which did 

 not absorb the identity of the ohwachira. 



A dispassionate survey of the underlying principles and general 

 laws and regulations of the League of the Iroquois for the purpose 

 of becoming acquainted with the mood and spirit in which they were 

 conceived reveals the startling fact that the hand, the heart, and the 

 mind of woman had a directing and molding influence in their formu- 

 lation and expression, for in noteworthy fashion they are uniformly 

 humane — even tender, tolerant, beneficent — and prudently designed 

 to secure the well-being of contemporary and future generations; 

 they are not harsh, not truculent, nor defiant of reason. 



The watchful anxiety manifested for the peace and welfare of the 

 children of the Commonwealth of the Iroquois clearly shows the 

 insistent expression of mother love as its primary source. This 

 love of children breaks forth full blown in the charge to the newly 

 installed federal chieftain, who is the executive representative of 

 woman in the discipline of government. 



In this remarkable charge, the newly installed chieftain is urged, 

 as one of his most important duties, to devote anxious and especial 

 care to securing the well-being of " the children who, running to and 

 fro, sport about him; of the children who, still creeping, propel 

 themselves about him in the dust; of the children whose bodies are 

 still made fast to cradle boards; and lastly, even of those unborn 

 children who, with faces turned this way, are on their way hither 

 below the surface of the earth." So that these little ones "might 

 have peace of mind and body for even one poor day." 



In North America the status and the plenary power of the Iro- 

 quois woman in the period covered by this study were unmatched 

 achievements of native statecraft. In her keeping were the purity 

 and nobleness of blood, the order of generations in the genealogical 

 tree, and the conservation and perpetuation of the ohwachira or 

 uterine family brood through the pains and cares of motherhood ; 

 these were each and all inherent in her person. She indeed pos- 

 sessed and exercised all civil and political power and authority. 

 The country, the land, the fields with their harvests and fruits be- 

 longed to her. The order of official succession was founded in her 

 blood ; her children belonged to her ; she presided at the contracting 

 of marriages affecting her ohwachira; in the crisis of events the 

 decision of the question of war or peace fell to her arbitrament; 

 her plans and wishes molded the policy and inspired the decisions 

 of councils. 



