264 



CHIFUKLUK CHIHLAKONINI 



[B. i. E. 



community, usually to its women, not to 

 the chief, who usually owes his nomina- 

 tion to the suffrages of his female constit- 

 uents, but in most communities he is 

 installed by some authority higher than 

 that of his chieftaincy. Both in the low- 

 est and the highest form of government 

 the chiefs are the creatures of law, ex- 

 pressed in Avell-defined customs, rites, 

 and traditions. Only where agriculture 

 is wholly absent may the simplest type 

 of chieftaincy be found. 



Where the civil structure is permanent 

 there exist permanent^ military chieftain- 

 ships, as among the Iroquois. To reward 

 personal merit and statesmanship the 

 Iroquois instituted a class of chiefs whose 

 office, upon the death of the holder, re- 

 mained vacant. This latter provision 

 was made to obviate a large representa- 

 tion and avoid a change in the established 

 roll cf chiefs. They were called "the 

 solitary pine trees," and were installed 

 in the same manner as the others. They 

 could not be deposed, but merely ostra- 

 cized, if they committed crimes rendering 

 them unworthy of giving counsel. 



Where the civil organization was of the 

 simplest character the authority of the 

 chiefs was most nearly despotic; even in 

 some instances where the civil structure 

 was complex, as among the Natchez, the 

 rule of the chiefs at times became in a 

 measure tyrannical, but this was due 

 largely to the recognition of social castes 

 and the domination of certain religious 

 beliefs and considerations. 



The chieftainship was usually heredi- 

 tary in certain families of the community, 

 although in some cominunities any person 

 by virtue of the acquisition of wealth 

 could proclaim himself a chief. Descent 

 of blood, property, and official titles were 

 generally traced through the mother. 

 Early writers usually called the chief who 

 acted as the chairman of the federal coun- 

 cil the "head chief" and sometimes, 

 when the tribe or confederation was pow- 

 erful and important, "king" or "em- 

 peror," as in the case of Powhatan. In 

 the Creek confederation and in that of 

 the Iroquois, the most complex abo- 

 riginal government N. of Mexico, there 

 was, in fact, no head chief. The first 

 chief of the Onondaga federal roll acted 

 as the chairman of the federal council, 

 and by virtue of his office he called the 

 federal council together. With this all 

 preeminence over the other chiefs ended, 

 for the governing power of the confedera- 

 tion was lodged in the federal council. 

 The federal council was composed of the 

 federal chiefs of the several component 

 tribes; the tribal council consisted of the 

 federal chiefs and subchiefs of the tribe. 



Communities are formed on the basis 

 of a union of interests and obligations. 



By the union of several rudimentary 

 communities for mutual aid and protec- 

 tion, in which each retained part of its 

 original freedom and delegated certain 

 social and political powers and jurisdic- 

 tion to the united community, was 

 evolved an assembly of representatives of 

 the united bands in a tribal council hav- 

 ing a definite jurisdiction. To these 

 chiefs were sometimes added subchiefs, 

 whose jurisdiction, though subordinate, 

 was concurrent with that of the chiefs. 

 The enlarged community constitutes a 

 tribe. From tribes were organised con- 

 federations. There were therefore sev- 

 eral grades of councils constituted. In 

 the council of the Iroquois confederation 

 the subchiefs had no voice or recognition. 



Among the Plains tribes the chieftaincy 

 seems to have been usually non-heredi- 

 tary. Any ambitious and courageous 

 warrior could apparently, in strict accord- 

 ance with custom, make himself a chief 

 by the acquisition of suitable property 

 and through his own force of character. 

 See Social organization. (j. n. b. h. ) 



Chifukluk. A Magemiut Eskimo vil- 

 lage on the left bank at the head of the 

 Yikon delta, Alaska. 



Chifukhlugumut,— Nelson in 18th Rep. B. \. ¥.., 

 map, 1S99. 



Chiggilli. See ChekilK. 



Chigilousa (Choctaw: lusa 'black,' 

 chigi 'houses'). A former tribe on the 

 lower Mississippi, probably the same as 

 the Chitimacha, w. of that river (La Tour, 

 map, 1783); but possibly they were of 

 Choctaw affinity. 



Chigmiut. A subtribe of the Chu- 

 gachugmiut Eskimo inhabiting Montague 

 id.. Prince William sd., Alaska. 

 Chigmut.— Dall in Cont. N. A. Ethnol., I, map, 

 1S77. 



Chignecto (from sir/unikt, ' foot cloth'). 

 A INIicmuc village in Nova Scotia in 1760. — 

 Frye (1760) in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st 

 s., X, 115, 1809. 



Chiguau. A former village, presumably 

 Costanoan, connected with Dolores mis- 

 sion, San Francisco, Cal. — Taylor in Cal. 

 Farmer, Oct. 18, 1861. 



Chihlakonini {cJd'ldko-nini, 'horse- 

 trail' ). A former Lower Creek town on 

 the upper waters of Chattahoochee r., 

 seemingly in the present Harris Co., Ga. 

 It was burned by the whites in Sept., 

 1793, at which date it consisted of 10 

 houses, but by 1799 the people had 

 formed a new town on the left bank of 

 Tallapoosa r., opposite Oakfuskee, Ala. 

 The upper trail or war path crossed the 

 latter stream by a horse ford at this 

 place, about 60 m. above Kasihta town. 

 It was. probably identical with Okfus- 

 kinini. ' (a. s. g.) 



Checlucca-ninne.— Bartram, Travels, 462, 1792. 

 Che'lako Nini.— Gatschet, Creek Migr. Leg., l, 129, 

 1884. Che-luc-co ne-ne,— Hawkins (1799), Sketch, 

 45, 1848. Chelucconinny.— Swan (1791) in School- 



