While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Government is the basis of the welfare and prosperity of human
society. A government is an organic institution formed to secure the
establishment of justice by safeguarding rights and enforcing the performance of
duties in accordance with the experience and the established customs and rules
of conduct of the governed. The superlative measure of justice obtainable by
government is found in the care and protection of the young and the aged, the
ready assistance rendered to comrades and the unfortunate, the maintenance of
peace, the preservation of the equivalency of rights, the recognition of the
equality of persons, the liberty of judgment and personal activity, and the
substitution of mercy for vengeance in the punishment of crime. Among primitive
folk rules of conduct, formulated by common consent or by customs derived from
high ancestral usage, are observed, and these are enforced ultimately by
corrective punitive measures. But justice is not secured thereby, and so some
other method whereby causes in contention may be more promptly adjudicated is
devised, and governments are organized.
Among the Indians of North America there are found many planes of culture, every
one of which is characterized by widely differing forms of government from the
simplest family group and village community to the most complex confederation of
highly organized tribes. In this area there are scores of distinct political
governments, all differing widely in degrees of structural complexity. These
differences in organization are determined largely by the extent to which the
functions of government are discriminated and by the correlative
specialization of organs thus made necessary. For most of the tribes of North
America a close study and analysis of the social and political organization are
wanting, hence the generalizations possible may as yet be applied safely only to
those peoples that have been most carefully studied. However, it may be said in
general that kinship, real or fictitious, is the basis of government among the
Indians of North America, for the fundamental units of the social structure are
groups of consanguine kindred, tracing descent of blood through the male or the
female line.
The known units of the social and political organization of the North American
Indians are the family, the clan or gens, the phratry, the tribe, and the
confederation (q. v.). Of these the tribe and the confederation are the only
units completely organized. The structures of only two or three confederations
are known, and that of the Iroquois is the type example. The confederation of
tribes was not usual, because the union of several tribes brought together many
conflicting interests which could not be adjusted without sacrifices that
appeared to overbalance the benefits of permanent confederation, and because
statesmanship of the needed breadth and astuteness was usually wanting. Hence
tribal government remains as the prevailing type of social organization in this
area. In most tribes the military were carefully discriminated from the civil
functions. The civil government was lodged in a chosen body of men usually
called chiefs, of whom there were commonly several grades. Usually the chiefs
were organized in a council exercising legislative, judicial, and executive
functions in matters pertaining to the welfare of the tribe. The civil chief was
not by virtue of his office a military leader. Among the Iroquois the civil
chief in order to go to war had to resign his civil function during his absence
on the warpath.
In tribal society every structural unit has, so far as known, the right to hold
a council. The ohwachira (q. v.) can hold a council, the family can hold a
council, and the united ohwachira councils with their officers form the council
of the clan or gens. The clan or gens has the right to hold a council. The
chiefs of the clans and gentes are the tribal chiefs, who form the tribal
council; but on occasions of great emergencies a grand council is held,
composed of the chiefs and sub-chiefs, the matrons and head warriors of the
ohwachira, and the leading men of the tribe. Besides, there is the council
confederation. So there are family councils, clan councils, gentile councils,
tribal councils, and confederation councils, respectively exercising sway in
separate
independent jurisdictions.
In some regions nature is so niggard of her bounties to
man that savagery and barbarism had not devised means to enable their
sons to dwell there in organized political communities; hence here may
be found some of the lowest forms of
social organization, if such it may be named. Kroeber says: "In general rudeness
of culture the California Indians are scarcely above the Eskimo; and whereas the
lack of development of the Eskimo on many sides of their nature is reasonably
attributable in part to their difficult and limiting environment, the Indians of
California inhabit a country naturally as favorable, it would seem, as might be.
If the degree of civilization attained by people depends in any large measure on
their habitat, as does not seem likely, it might be concluded from the case of
the California Indians that natural advantages were an impediment rather than an
incentive to progress" (Univ. Cal. Publ., Am. Archmol. and Ethnol., ii, no. 3,
81, 1904). This question of the effect of environment on the activities and
development of peoples is one still requiring much scientific study.
Dixon (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xvii, pt. 3, 1905), in treating of the
northern Maidu of California, describes a state of society largely similar to
that of the Hupa as noted in general terms by Goddard. Among the Maidu he finds
no trace of gentile or totemic grouping. Aside from the village communities
there was no definite organization. Every village or group of small villages had
a headman or chief (the office being in no case hereditary), who was chosen
largely through the aid of the shaman, who was thought to reveal to the electors
the choice of the spirits. Mature years and wealth, ability, and generosity were
strong recommendations in making a selection. Tenure of office lasted only
during good behavior. The functions of the chief were largely advisory, although
force of character and ability might in some cases secure a larger measure of
respect and obedience. There also appears to have been "a rather indeterminate
council, composed of the older members of the Secret Society."
Goddard (Univ. Cal. Puhl., Am. Archaeol. and Ethnol., i, no. 1, 1903) says there
were no organization and no formalities in the government of the village or
tribe among the Hupa. "Formal councils were unknown, although the chief might,
and often did, take the advice of his men in a collected body." Each village had
a headman, whose wealth gave him the power of a chief and maintained him in that
power, and he was obeyed because from him food was obtained in times of scarcity. If trouble arose, he
settled the dispute with money. While the people obeyed him, whatever he had was
at their service. "His power descended to his son at his death, if his property
also so descended. On the other hand, anyone who, by industry or extraordinary
abilities, had acquired more property might obtain the dignity and power." The
family and the village communities were the units of the social organization.
According to Powers (Overland Mo., viii, 530, 1872), among the Karok of
California the chief exercises no authority beyond his own village, wherein his
functions are chiefly advisory. He can state the law or the custom and the
facts, and he may give his opinion, but he can hardly pronounce and execute
judgment.
Kroeber (op. cit., 83), in speaking of the Indians of California generally, says
that the social structure was simple and loose, there being no trace of a
gentile organization and that it is hardly correct to speak of tribes. Above the
family the only units of organization were the village and the dialect; the
common bond was similarity of language or frequency and cordiality of
intercourse; in most cases the larger groups were nameless, while the village
communities were usually named from localities; the lack of organization
generally made the systematic classification of the divisions of any large body
of Indians difficult; in population and social life the village approximated a
localized clan, but, being the largest political unit, it corresponded in a
measure to a tribe. In so simple a condition of society difference of rank
naturally found but little scope. The influence of chiefs was small, and no
distinct classes of nobles or slaves were known.
Mooney says that the Kiowa government was formerly lodged in a council of
chiefs, composed of the presiding chief, the chiefs of the several bands, and
the war chiefs. Women had no voice in the government. The Cheyenne have no head
chief, but instead have a council composed of 40 chiefs and 4 ex-chiefs.
