SO( l \l. ORGANIZ \ I ION ''■ ! 



practised cremation and but a few of them placed 

 the bodies underground. In fact, the Government 

 authorities experienced great difficulty in inducing the 

 modern Indians to inter their dead, as it is against their 

 old belief, in that it would interfere with the passage of 

 the spirit to the other world. 



Government. The political organization was 

 rather loose and in general quite democratic. Each band, 

 gens, or clan informally recognized an indefinite number of 

 men as head men, one or more of whom were formally 

 vested with representative powers in the tribal council. 

 Among the Dakota, there was a kind of society of older 

 men, self-electing, who legislated on all important 

 matters. They appointed four of their number to 

 exercise the executive functions. The Omaha had a 

 somewhat similar system. The Cheyenne had four 

 chiefs of equal rank and a popularly elected council 

 of forty members. Among the Blackfoot we seem to 

 have a much less systematic arrangement, the leading 

 men of each band forming a general council which 

 in turn recognized one individual as chief. Of the west- 

 ern tribes the Northern Shoshoni, at least, had even a 

 less formal system. 



Though there were in the Plains some groups spoken 

 of as confederacies by pioneers; viz., the Blackfoot, 

 Sarsi, and Gros Ventre; the seven Dakota tribes; the 

 Pawnee group; the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and 

 Comanche, none of these seem to have been more 

 than alliances. At least, there was nothing like the 

 celebrated League of the Iroquois in the Woodland 

 area. 



