LEAGUE OF IROQUOIS — HEWITT. 531 



Rarely, the offspring of an adopted alien came to constitute an 

 ohwachira having chiefship titles; but this was first only a trustee- 

 ship of the titles, which belonged to an extinct, moribund, or out- 

 lawed, ohwachira. A basic rule of the constitution of the league 

 of the Iroquois provides in the case of the extinction of an ohwachira 

 owning chiefship titles, that for the preservation of this title, 

 it shall be placed in trust with a sister ohwachira of the same 

 clan, if such there be, during the pleasure of the council of the 

 league. This was a most important law in view of the fact that no 

 new federal titles were instituted after the death of Deganawida, 

 the prophet statesman of the Iroquois. 



The women of marriageable age and the mothers in the ohwachira 

 had the right to hold councils; especially, such as those at which 

 candidates for chief and vice-chief might be nominated by the 

 mothers alone. At such councils these women had the right to 

 formulate some proposition for discussion by the tribal council ; it 

 might be done in conjunction with other ohwachira. (This is, in 

 embryo at least, the modern so-called right of initiative.) In like 

 manner, a proposition might be made to the tribal council to submit 

 to the suffrages of all the people, including infants (the mothers 

 casting their votes), any question which might be occupying the 

 attention of the council or the people. (This is, in embryo at least, 

 the modern so-called right of referendum.) 



It is the right of the matron of the ohwachira whose chief wanders 

 away from the path of rectitude to take the initial step in his depo- 

 sition for cause — first, by going in person to him and warning him 

 to reform and to return to the path of right and duty; if he fails 

 to heed this warning she seeks out her brother or eldest son, as a 

 representative of the men of her ohwachira, and together they go to 

 give the erring chief the second warning. If still he persists in the 

 neglect of duty and in doing wrong, the matron then goes to the 

 chief warrior of the ohwachira, and then these three together go to 

 him and merely inform him that he must appear on a given day at 

 the tribal council. There the chief warrior asks him categorically 

 whether he will or will not conform to the expressed wish of his 

 ohwachira. If he refuse to reform he is at once deposed, the chief 

 warrior figuratively removing from his head the "symbolic horns" 

 (i. e. y receiving back the wampum strings which are the certificate 

 of his official title) of his title and handing them to the matron. 

 (This is, in brief, the recall of modern times.) 



In the structure of the league several ohwachira, some having a 

 chiefship title, are incorporated to form one clan, so that this clan 

 is represented in the tribal or the federal council by two or more 

 chieftains. It so happens that the Mohawk and the Oneida tribes 

 have only three clans each; but each of these clans has three oh- 



