COUNCILS AND CEREMONIES OF ADOPTION OF NEW YORK INDIANS 345 



is its great feature, but then chiefs and people are gathered to 

 perform a great duty, with mutual agreement. In this sense it is a 

 council, and it may go as far as to depose chiefs or refuse to instal 

 them. On account of its antiquity and prominence a full account 

 is given here. It has a great importance in tracing the history 

 and character of the Iroquois League. 



Character and power of chiefs 

 The idea of reviving the dead in the person of some one living 

 was a common one among the Indians south and east of the Great 

 Lakes, but it took somewhat different forms. Among the Iroquois 

 it was shown in the adoption of captives in the place of those 

 deceased, who assumed all the duties and privileges of the one 

 dead, but there was an official resuscitation, the new chief taking 

 his predecessor's name and office, but not his family relations. 

 Among the Algonquins he was considered to be the dead actually 

 alive again. The Relation of 1639 describes this in Canada. 



The savages have a custom of resuscitating or making their 

 friends revive, particularly if they were men of distinction among 

 them. They make some other bear the name of the deceased ; and 

 behold the dead man resuscitated and the grief of the relatives en- 

 tirely gone. Observe that to the name given in a great assembly 

 or feast, they add a present which is made on the part of the rela- 

 tives or friends of the one whom they have revived, and he who ac- 

 cepts the name and the present is obliged to take care of the family 

 of the deceased so well that the wards call him father. 



In the Relation of 1644, there is a full account of the installation 

 of an Algonquin chief in Canada, probably much like that of the 

 same family in New York. There was a master of ceremonies with 

 assistants, who arranged the presents and prepared the new chief's 

 seat. Two officers were sent for him and conducted him to the 

 place where his old robe was removed and a fairer one put on him. 

 Wampum was put abou* his neck and a calumet and tobacco in 

 his hand. Another richly dressed chief acted as herald and pro- 

 claimed the object of the ceremony. 



It is a question of resuscitating one dead, and of bringing to life 

 a great captain. Thereupon he names him and all his posterity, he 

 describes the place and manner of death, then turning toward the 

 one who is to succeed him, he raises his voice : " Behold him," he 



