IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 



137 



If, by the death of a sachem or chief, a summons was called for 

 a general council or a condolence at that time new chiefs would be 

 elected or " raised up " and sachems installed. In this election of 

 chiefs the " mother " of the family in which the vacancy occurred, 

 having the " name " of the office in her keeping could confer it upon 

 any male of her own line of descent, whom she should regard as 

 most reliable. It was her province to decide all questions of 

 nomination. She might consult each member of the household as 

 to their judgment of the merit of the candidate, but her final word 

 was authoritative and gave the nomination. 



Invested with the power she could also depose or " knock the 

 horns off " any chief who might be derelict in duty. At the great 

 councils her act of deposition was invariably confirmed and her 

 nominee elected. This law prevailed among all the tribes of the 

 Six Nations. 



Of burial or " death feasts " women had full control. In religious 

 feasts women or "matrons " were appointed to serve in the cere- 

 monies with the men. On these occasions certain women were 

 delegated to prepare the feast food and none others were per- 

 mitted to assist. 



At the Green Corn festival, women, having charge of the fields, 

 first gathered the corn and submitted it at the Council House to the 

 Honondiont, or priests, who examined it and if it was sufficiently ripe 

 decided when the feasts should be called. By order of the Honondi- 

 ont runners would be sent with invitations from one nation to its 

 neighboring nation until all had been requested to participate in 

 the rites and social pleasures of the forthcoming festival. 



Women were keepers of certain wampum belts called " Chief " 

 belts. These were sent by them to the great councils when a 

 chief was to be raised and were legally recognized as the law. No 

 attention was attached to any nomination unless confirmed by 

 these wampum belts. As the Onondagas were the keepers of all 

 the national and civil belts a sachem of this nation was the reader 

 of all belts by which the law was interpreted. 



In their mythology the Iroquois have honored women as the 

 guardian spirits of their plants, the corn, beans and squash. 



Unlike other primitive peoples, the descent falling by line of the 

 mother blood, she continues united to the destinies of her own 

 nation and tribe, and there is no loss of her identity by a marriage 

 name or title thereof. This system of relationship, the main 

 fabric of the League of the Iroquois, has been continued inviolate 

 even to the present day by the descendants who yet linger as 

 inheritors and observers of the old law. 



