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CHAPTEE XX. 



TRIBAL GOVERNMENT. 



NOTHING is more difficult to understand than the govern- 

 ment of an Indian tribe, and for the good reason that it 

 is a very curious compound of despotism, oligarchy, and 

 democracy. 



The office of chief or ruler of each tribe was originally 

 hereditary. This has been greatly modified of late years, 

 the United States Government having in some instances 

 deposed refractory chiefs, and substituted in their place 

 others supposed to be more manageable. 



Their own very peculiar and eccentric ideas on the 

 subject of government have also a material bearing on 

 the virtual deposition or advancement of a chief. The 

 head chief is supposed to be the principal man of the 

 tribe. Whether he is so or not is a matter of accident or 

 good management. 



Each tribe is more or less divided into bands, each 

 under the control of a sub-chief (generally an ambitious, 

 aspiring man, envious of the head chief, and jealous of the 

 other sub-chiefs), whose great anxiety is to make himself 

 popular, and get as many lodges as possible under his 

 command. Each sub-chief, as a rule, keeps his band as 

 much as possible away from other bands. This is done 

 in order to ensure its safer and more perfect control, and 

 is desirable on account of the greater facility for procuring 

 food. 



So long as the head of a lodge is under his actual 

 control, the sub-chief has unlimited power over him and 



