The Indian Council has a province more important than that which our
Municipal Councils exercise. Its decisions as to disputes growing out
of real estate transactions, unless clearly wrong, have in them the
force of law.
The ordinary Council is a somewhat informal gathering as regards a
presiding officer or officers, and, also, in respect of that essential
feature of a quorum, for which similar bodies among ourselves hold out
so exactingly. The Chiefs of the tribes, who, alone, are privileged to
participate in discussions, can scarcely be looked upon in the light of
presidents of the meeting; nor can there be discovered in the privileges
or duties of any one of them the functions of a presiding officer.
The Chiefs of the Mohawks and Senecas, who sit on the left of the house,
initiate discussion on all questions. The debating is then transferred
to the opposite side of the house, where are seated the Chiefs of the
Tuscaroras, Oneidas, and Cayugas, and is carried on by these Chiefs. The
Chiefs of the Onondagas, who are called "Fire-Keepers" (of the origin
of the name "Fire-Keeper," I will treat further, anon) then speak
to the motion, or upon the measure, and, finally, decide everything;
and they are, in view of this power of finality of decision with all
questions, regarded as the most important Chiefs among the confederated
tribes. The decision of the "Fire-Keepers" does not, by any means,
always show concurrence in what may have been the _consensus_
of opinion expressed by previous speakers, very frequently, indeed,
embodying sentiments directly opposite to the weight of the judgment
with those speakers. As illustrating, more pointedly, the arbitrary
powers committed to these Chiefs, they may import into the debate a
fresh and hitherto unbroached line of discussion, and, following it,
may argue from a quite novel standpoint, and formulate a decision based
upon some utterly capricious leaning of their own. I have not been able
to learn whether the decision of these Chiefs, to be valid, requires to be
established by their unanimous voice, or simply by a majority of the body.
The reason or cogency of the system of debate followed in the Indian
Council has not seemed to me clearly demonstrable; nor is the cause for
the honour attaching to the Chiefs of the Mohawks and Senecas, and of
the Onondagas, respectively, of commencing and closing discussion, very
explicable. I believe, however, that the principle of kinship subsisting
between the tribes, the Chiefs of which are thus singled out for these
duties, governs, in some way, the practice adopted; and am led, also,
to imagine that exceptional functions, in other matters as well, vest
in these Chiefs; and that they enjoy, in general, precedence over the
Chiefs of the other tribes.
The Chiefs in Council take cognizance of the internal concerns,
and control and administer, generally, the internal affairs, of the
community. There are often special and extraordinary deliberations of the
body, which involve discussion upon points that transcend the operation
of the Indian Acts, and require the Government to be represented; and,
in these cases, the Indian Superintendent, whose presence is necessary
to confer validity on any measure passed, is the presiding officer.
As mention is made here of the Superintendent, or, as his title runs in
full, the Visiting Superintendent and Commissioner, it will be opportune
now to define his powers, so far as I understand them.
It may be said, in general, that he exercises supervisory power over
everything that concerns the well-being and interests of the Indian. By
the representations made by him to the Government in his reports (and by
those, of course, who hold the like office in other Indian districts)
has been initiated nearly every law, or amendment to a law, which the
pages of the Indian Acts disclose.
He will often watch (though in his commission no obligation, I believe,
rests upon him to do this) the trial of an Indian, where some one of the
graver crimes is involved, that he may, perchance, arrive at the impelling
cause for its perpetration. This may have had its origin, perhaps, in
the criminal's having over-indulged in drink, or in his having resigned
himself to some immoral bent; or it may have been connected, generally,
with some deluging of the community with immorality. If, haply, the
origin of the crime be traced, the Superintendent embodies in his report
a reccommendation looking to a change in the law, which shall tend to
suppress and control the evil. If there be indication that a particular
order of crime prevails, or that, unhappily, some new departure in its
melancholy category is being practised, it will, again, be his place to
represent the situation to the Government, to the end that a healthier
state of things may be brought about. He is authorized, in certain cases,
to make advances on an individual Indian's account, and, also, on the
general account, where some emergency affecting the entire tribe arises,
such as a failure of the crops, confronting the Indian with the serious,
and, but for this Governmental provision, insuperable, difficulty of
finding the outlay for seeding for the next season's operations.
It is customary for the Superintendent to attend important examinations
of the Indian schools, that he may have light upon the pupils' progress,
and may report accordingly.
Where an occurrence of unusual moment in the history of any of the
Churches takes place; the projecting, perhaps, of some fresh spiritual
campaign amongst the Indians; or one, marking some specially auspicious
event, he will often lend his presence, with the view to enlightenment
as to the spiritual state of his charges.
I have already said, that through the agency of the Superintendent, the
Indian receives his interest-money, and it may, perhaps, be interesting to
detail the manner in which this is usually drawn. The tribes are told off
for this purpose, and, I believe, certain other purposes, into a number
of bands; and a given day is set (or, perhaps, three or four days are
assigned) whereon the members of a particular band shall be privileged
to draw. If the drawing of the money be not marked by that expedition
which the plan is designed to secure, but rather suggests that there
are a number of stragglers yet to come forward to exercise their right,
the turn of another band comes, and so on, the straggling ones of each
band being treated with last.
It is usual for the head of each family to draw for himself and his
domestic circle.
The present incumbent of the Superintendent's office is a gentleman of
fine parts, and one who has striven, during a term of nearly twenty years,
with tact and ability, to conserve the interests of the Indian. Speaking
of tact, the Indian character exacts a large display of it from one whose
relation to him is such as that which the Superintendent occupies, his
overseer and, to a large extent, his mentor. There have been outcries
against his course in some matters, though these have been indulged in
only a small section; but the Indian chafes under direction, and is,
for the most part, a chronic grumbler; and his discontent frequently
finds expression in delegations to the Government, which, though they
_may_ be planned with the view of ventilating some grievance, are
more generally conceived of by him in the light of happy expedients
for giving play to his oratory, or for setting about to establish
his pretensions to eminence in that regard, in a somewhat exacting
quarter; or, mayhap, for conveying to the powers that be, by palpable
demonstration, the fact of his continued existence, and more, of his
continued _dissatisfied_ existence.
But to return to the Council. Where complaint of irregular dealing is
preferred by either party to a transfer or sale of real estate, it comes
within the scope of the Chief's powers to decree an equitable basis upon
which such transfer or sale shall henceforward be viewed, and carried
out. The jurisdiction of the Chiefs also ranges over such matters as
the considering of applications from members of the various tribes for
licensing the sale to whites of timber, stone, or other valuable deposit,
with which the property of such applicants may be enriched; and they
likewise treat with applications for relief from members of the tribes,
whom physical incapacity debars from earning living, or who have been
reduced to an abject state of poverty and indigence; and have authority
to supplement the interest-annuities of such, should they see fit,
with suitable amounts.
The silent adjudging of a question is something abhorrent to the genius
of the Indian, and is in reality unknown. Dishonouring thus the custom,
he can grandly repudiate the contemptuous epithet of "voting machine;"
so unsparingly directed against, and pitilessly fastening upon, certain
ignoble legislators among ourselves. The manner of proceeding that
obtained with the Ojibways was somewhat different from the practice I have
detailed, and I allude to it now, because the tribe of the Delawares,
who are now treated as an off-shoot of the Oneidas, and are merged with
their kin in the Six Nations, belonged originally to the Ojibways. With
them the decision was come to according to the opinions expressed by the
majority of the speakers--a plan resolving itself into the system of a
show of hands (or a show of _tongues_, which shall it be?) it having
been customary for all who proposed to pass upon a measure to speak as
well. The issue upheld by the greater number of hands shown, naturally,
as with us, succeeded. Where a measure, in the progress of discussion,
proved unpopular, it was dropped, an arrangment which should convey a
wise hint to certain bodies I wot of.
It will be readily gathered from what has been said, that the method of
voting, in order to establish what is the judgment of the greater number,
does not prevail with the Indian Councils.