TBIBAL SIM u. 241 



r important bond of m.i-.u was the possession of 

 .union M nguage. 



tribes 11 occupied positions of entire equality in 

 the confederacy, in rights, privileges, and obligations. 

 Each tribe remain. -.1 in. Impendent in all matters pertain 

 ing to local self-government The confederacy created 

 a general council of fifty sachems, 1 * equal in rank and 

 authority and invested with supreme powers over all 

 ling to the c< icy. The sachems 



clans. The clans also had the ritrlit to 

 remove a sachem from office for just cause. Eacli nil.. 

 had a council composed of its chiefs and sachems with 

 MI prome power over matters which pertain. 1 t.. th. tril.e 

 x.'liixivrly. rnaniinity in the council of the confederacy 

 was eential to rv.-ry public aM, aini in thN .mn.-il the 

 sachems voted by tribes. The tribal < -ouncils alone had 

 the power to convene the general council of the confed- 

 eracy. The people had the right to participate directly 

 in the discussion of public <| s in the council ly 



m I- i-r.-. nt thnn. The weak point in the 

 confederacy was that there was no exemtiv. head, no 

 hirf magistrate. Thnv were two equi-powerful war- 

 chiefs with \ -rto power over each other's acts. This pro- 

 vision, howev. r. .lid not do away with the serious defi- 

 ciency in administrative power. In this remarkable 

 organization of a primitive people still in the cultural 

 stage of stone implements and rudimentary agriculture, 

 puhlic opinion was very important. The distinctly demo- 

 crat ic form of this system of social organization shows 



i* A tribe it a community of people occupying a deflniie territory, peak- 

 ing one language or dialect, and baring many custom* ami traditioat fa 

 common; it in usually *ubdirided into mverl clans. 



"Civil leaden aa -who were military kwdera. 



