Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/221

Rh and decisive, for acting for the tribe. These the whites called kings, chieftains, sachems, councillors, while the commonalty were called subjects. The facts certainly soon came to conform to this view of the whites; but it is doubtful whether such had previously been the state of things. Especially is it doubtful whether the members of a tribe considered themselves as subjects of their chief, in our sense of the word. Our term “citizens” would more properly apply to them. They spoke of themselves as the people of a tribe. We shall have again to refer to this point in connection with the matter of the cession of lands.

There was a wide variety as to headship and methods of organization among the scattered tribes of the aborigines on this continent. We find frequent instances in which headship was divided into two distinct functions, there being a chief for affairs of war and another for civil administration, — a fighter and an orator. The “powwows,” priests, or medicine-men had functions in the government. Sometimes the hereditary headship ran in the male, sometimes in the female line, and occasionally it ran off into collateral branches. The holding of a headship, if its possessor was of marked ability, gave him a large range to assert authority, and assured to him full liberty and acquiescence in its exercise. The ablest Indians with whom the whites have had the most serious relations, in peace or war, have been without exception chiefs of their tribes. There have been but few of these great men, born sovereigns and patriots, compared with the vastly larger number of the ordinary and petty sachems who have held their places. Often, too, the character and qualities of the so-called subjects would influence the functions and authority of a chief, as well as indicate what sort of a man he had need to be.

Under the term “Belts,” Europeans name the wrought and ornamented strips of skin or cloth in use by the natives, made by themselves, and employed to signify or ratify covenants, pledges, and treaties in their councils upon the