Treatise on the Six-Nation Indians | Page 3

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