Treatise on the Six-Nation Indians | Page 4

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