POWRLL.] A STUDY OF TRIBAL SOCIETY. 61 
Thus a tribe is a body of kindred. 
Of the four groups thus described, the gens, the phratry, and the 
tribe constitute the series of organic units; the family, or household as 
here described, is not a unit of the gens or phratry, as two gentes are 
represented in each—the father must belong to one gens, and the mother 
and her children to another. 
GOVERNMENT. 
Society is maintained by the establishment of government, for rights 
must be recognized and duties performed. 
In this tribe there is found a complete differentiation of the military 
from the civil government. 
CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 
The civil government inheres in a system of councils and chiefs. 
In each gens there is a council, composed of four women, called Yu- 
wai-yu-wda-na. These four women councillors select a chief of the gens 
from its male members—that is, from their brothers and sons. This 
gentile chief is the head of the gentile council. 
The council of the tribe is composed of the aggregated gentile coun- 
cils. The tribal council, therefore, is composed one-fifth of men and 
four-fifths of women. 
The sachem of the tribe, or tribal chief, is chosen by the chiefs of the 
gentes. 
There is sometimes a grand council of the gens, composed of the coun- 
cillors of the gens proper and all the heads of households and leading 
men—brothers and sons. 
There is also sometimes a grand council of the tribe, composed of the 
council of the tribe proper and the heads of households of the tribe, and 
all the leading men of the tribe. 
These grand councils are convened for special purposes. 
METHODS OF CHOOSING AND INSTALLING COUNCILLORS AND CHIEFS. 
The four women councillors of the gens are chosen by the heads of 
households, themselves being women. There is no formal election, but 
frequent discussion is had over the matter from time to time, in which 
a sentiment grows up within the gens and throughout the tribe that, in 
the event of the death of any councillor, a certain person will take her 
place. 
In this manner there is usually one, two, or more potential councillors 
in each gens who are expected to attend all the meetings of the council, 
though they take no part in the deliberations and have no vote. 
When a woman is installed as councillor a feast is prepared by the 
gens to which she belongs, and to this feast all the members of the tribe 
are invited. The woman is painted and dressed in her best attire and 
the sachem of the tribe places upon her head the gentile chaplet of 
feathers, and announces in a formal manner to the assembled guests that 
