TRIBAL SOCIETY 241 



Another important bond of union was the possession of 

 a common stock language. 



The tribes 12 occupied positions of entire equality in 

 the confederacy, in rights, privileges, and obligations. 

 Each tribe remained independent in all matters pertain- 

 ing to local self-government. The confederacy created 

 a general council of fifty sachems, 13 equal in rank and 

 authority and invested with supreme powers over all 

 matters pertaining to the confederacy. The sachems 

 were elected by clans. The clans also had the right to 

 remove a sachem from office for just cause. Each tribe 

 had a council composed of its chiefs and sachems with 

 supreme power over matters which pertained to the tribe 

 exclusively. Unanimity in the council of the confederacy 

 was essential to every public act, and in this council the 

 sachems voted by tribes. The tribal councils 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 questions in the council by 

 having orators represent them. The weak point in the 

 confederacy was that there was no executive head, no 

 chief magistrate. There were two equi-powerful war- 

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

 vision, however, did 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, 

 public opinion was very important. The distinctly demo- 

 cratic form of this system of social organization shows 



12 A tribe is a community of people occupying a definite territory, speak- 

 ing one language or dialect, and having many customs and traditions in 

 common ; it is usually subdivided into several clans. 



is Civil leaders as distinct from chiefs who were military leaders. 



