THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
H. E. WADSWORTH, Superintendent
VOLUME 18
IR O Q U O IS
FEBRUARY, 1916
NUMBER 5
C O N F E D E R A C Y
T R A IN E D ANI> P R O V E D T H IN K E R S R U L E D
R. Arthur C. Parker, State Archaeologist of New York,
has contributed the following historical and intense
ly interesting article on Indian history:
The Confederacy of the Five Nations of the Iro
quois was founded on the doctrine of the community
welfare. Its founders, Dekanawida and Hiawatha,
believed that tribal groups speaking similar dialects
should institute a movement for the consolidation of the Huron - Iroquois
stock tinder a confederate government
To this nucleus should be add
ed other tribes as opportunity afforded. Warfare would therefore be
abolished and through the reign of peace, prosperitv would come. In
deed, the constitution of the Confederacy as finally drawn up was call
ed the (treat Peace Law. The idea was to establish through organiza
tion, a mutual understanding of the groups and to consolidate individ-
U il interests.
'file second ideal was that of the right of the people, in the broadest
sense, to govern themselves. Every child was borne into a group, a
clan or phratry. having a definite relationship to other groups. Indeed
in many instances a name bestowed upon an individual by the name-
holders or his group was more the name of an office than of a person.
Though all the people might rule, only those w ho from birth had been
trained for riding were elected to the office, 'file fifty sachems of the
Confederacy were in a sense hereditery rulers, yet there was a latitude
of choice, for the oldest was the logical candidate, but if his life record
was against him another might be nominated for the civil ruler, Thus
there was a wholesome rivalry and the man whose ancestry made him a
candidate for sachemship endeavored to attain a proficiency that would
at once recommend him. Trained and proven thinkers ruled the Con
federacy. As a check on the National and Confederate Councils, there
were councils of the men and of the women, both clan and national.