el him to obey or
take the consequences. The influence of Indian rulers was more like
that of leading men in a civilized community: it was chiefly personal
and persuasive, and it was exerted in various indirect ways. If, for
example, it became a question how to deal with a man who had done
something violently opposed to Indian usage or to the interest of the
tribe, there was not anything like an open trial, but the chiefs held a
secret council and discussed the case. If they {30} decided favorably
to the man, that was an end of the matter. On the other hand, if they
agreed that he ought to die, there was not any formal sentence and
public execution. The chiefs simply charged some young warrior with
the task of putting the offender out of the way. The chosen
executioner watched his opportunity, fell upon his victim unawares,
perhaps as he passed through the dark porch of a lodge, and brained him
with his tomahawk. The victim's family or clan made no demand for
reparation, as they would have done if he had been murdered in a
private feud, because public opinion approved the deed, and the whole
power of the tribe would have been exerted to sustain the judgment of
the chiefs.

According to our ideas, which demand a fair and open trial for every
accused person, this was most abhorrent despotism. Yet it had one very
important safeguard: it was not like the arbitrary will of a single
tyrant doing things on the impulse of the moment. Indians are
eminently deliberative. They are much given to discussing things and
endlessly powwowing about them. They take no important step without
talking it over for days. Thus, in such a case as has been supposed,
there was general concurrence in the {31} judgment of the chiefs,
because they were understood to have canvassed the matter carefully,
and their decision was practically that of the tribe.

This singular sort of authority was vested in two kinds of men;
sachems, who were concerned with the administration of the tribal
affairs at all times, and war-chiefs, whose duty was limited to
leadership in the field. The sachems, therefore, constituted the real,
permanent government. Of these there were ten chosen in each of the
five tribes. Their council was the governing body of the tribe. In
these councils all were nominally equals. But, naturally, men of
strong personality exercised peculiar power. The fifty sachems of the
five tribes composed the Grand Council which was t