135 
It will, perhaps, clarify this description of 
if we present its framework diagrammatically.^ 
League of the Iroquois 
Iroquoian organization 
1 
(Trite) ^lohawk Oneida 
( )nondaga 
Cayuga Seneca 
(Phratry) I 
I 
II 
1 
(Clan) '^i’urtle Bear Wolf 
Ball 
Deer Hawk Great Snipe 
I 
Tjittle Snipe 
(Maternal Family) A 
B C 
(f ndiridual Family) a 
b 
c d e 
The council that administered the affairs of the league was 
composed of nearly fifty chiefs or sachems, all of equal rank, and 
all selected from the maternal families. They assembled at irregular 
intervals, whenever necessity arose, to arbitrate on intertribal 
problems, to receive embassies, ami to decide on peace or war with 
outside tribes. Being federal officials, they possessed no legal 
authority in matters that concerned only a single tribe or clan,^ 
but in practice they wielded considerable power. The method of 
selecting a sachem was peculiar. His title was hereditary in some 
maternal family, so that the choice of a representative was limited. 
The matron of that family selected a candidate after consultation 
with other women of her family and clan; her selection was ratified, 
first by the sachems of the same phratry, then by the sachems of 
the opposite phratry, and finally by the entire council of the league, 
which called a great intertribal festival to install him in office. The 
same matron had power to depose him again if he failed to uphold 
the dignity of his position; after two warnings, she called upon 
him in company with a “ warrior chief”, ^ and formally divested him 
of office. 
The authority possessed by the matrons of the maternal families 
would seem to constitute them the ultimate ‘^powers behind the 
1 The table is, of course, much abbrevialetl. It subdivides only the Seneca tribe, and even in that 
tribe does not mark all the maternal families, but only those of one clan. 
2 There are differences of opinion on tliis point, however. See Morgan, L. 11.: League of the 
Ho-de-no-sau-nee or Iroquois, Book i, p. 90 (New York, 1904). 
3 The status of these “ warrior chiefs ” Ls discussed later. 
86959—10 
