ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 59 



became greater. Finally, men become members of the 

 council by obtaining a standard accomplishment or requi- 

 site age. 



The chief, or the councilman from the family which origi- 

 nally furnished the chief, commenced all discussion. The 

 others spoke in order of the importance of the families to 

 which they belonged. Women were sometimes admitted, 

 whose business it was to remember the proceedings and 

 narrate them to their children. All measures were decided 

 by a unanimous majority. If there was a difference of 

 opinion the minority usually yielded, if not, no decision 

 would be reached. A tribe, when very large, or the union 

 of several small tribes of the same stock-language, was 

 called a nation, whose government was the same as the 

 tribe. The highest type of government was the confederacy 

 of nations, as the Iroquois, Ottawa, Creek, and Powhattan. 



The regulations of the Iroquois League when America was 

 first settled was as follows: A council of sachems, limited in 

 number, equal in power, a union of six nations, each re- 

 maining independent in all matters pertaining to local gov- 

 ernment. Unanimity in council, sachems voted by tribes, 

 council open to orators of the people for the discussion of 

 public questions — council alone deciding. Women had a 

 veto power in declaration of war. 



In 1836 the Choctaw Nation had a council of forty 

 members elected by popular vote; chiefs had an honorary 

 seat; were not allowed to vote, though they possessed a veto 

 power, over which a two-thirds vote passed ; chairman and 

 officers were elected, committees appointed, speakers arose 

 and addressed the chair, questions were put in the usual 

 form, vote given by rising, minutes kept in English and 

 read in Choctaw. 



The confederacy is superior, and related to the nation as 

 the nation is to the tribe and the tribe to the famil}', and 

 the whole resembles our advance from the neighborhood 

 to the county, thence to State, and finally to the union of 

 States. 



