LEAGUE OF IROQUOIS HEWITT. 543 



veloped people or human brood of one blood and origin live under 

 the direct care and special providence of its gods and so seeks to 

 maintain, by suitable rite and ceremony, unbroken and intact relation 

 and converse with them. From the legends and traditions of such 

 a people it is learned that all that they have, all that they do ritually, 

 and all that they know, they have received freely by the grace of 

 their gods. The tribes of the Iroquois people were no exception to 

 this rule. 



In Iroquois polity there was a definite separation of purely civil 

 from strictly religious affairs. So the office of civil chief was clearly 

 marked off from that of prophet or priest, and in so far as an 

 incumbent was concerned it was the gift of the suffrages of a definite 

 group of his clanswomen, and so in no sense was it hereditary. The 

 office was hereditary in the clan, and strictly speaking in some 

 family line of the clan. The civil assembly, or the council of chiefs 

 and elders or senators, was in no sense a religious gathering, not- 

 withstanding the custom of opening it with a thanksgiving prayer 

 in recognition of the Master of Life — a strictly religious act. The 

 officers of the religious societies and assemblies were not the same 

 as those who presided over the councils of chiefs. And it is note- 

 worthy that a federal chief must not engage in warfare while clothed 

 with the title and insignia of office; to do so he was required to 



resign his office of federal chief during his absence on the warpath. 

 ******* 



There is a dualism in organization running through all public 

 assemblies of the Iroquois peoples living under the earlier culture. 

 It must be noted that this dual character of the tribal and league 

 organization does not rest on blood ties or affinity, or on common 

 religious rites, but rather on the motive to dramatize two dominant 

 principles which appear to pervade and energize all observed sentient 

 life. In short, this dualism is based primarily on certain mythic 

 concepts regarding the source of life and the most effective means 

 of conserving it on earth among men. Among the Iroquois people 

 of to-day the knowledge of the reason for the persistent dual organi- 

 zation of tribe and league has been lost completely. But a pains- 

 taking analysis of rituals and of certain terms appearing in them 

 gives us a trustworthy clue to the reason for a dualism in organi- 

 zation. The reason thus deduced is the need for embodying in the 

 tribal organic unity the principles of the complementary sexes as 

 organic factors in order to secure fertility and abundant progeny. 

 In short, it was deemed imperative to recognize the male and female 

 principles of the biotic world and all that such recognition implies — 

 fatherhood and motherhood and the duties and obligations arising 

 from these states, as defined in Iroquois thinking. This dualism 

 makes the life of the father and the mother endure with that of the 



