Wyandot Government: A Short Study of Tribal Society | Page 3

of the full moon of each
lunation and at such other times as the sachem may determine; but
extra councils are usually called by the sachem at the request of a
number of councilors.
Meetings of the gentile councils are very informal, but the meetings of
the tribal councils are conducted with due ceremony. When all the
persons are assembled, the chief of the Wolf gens calls them to order,
fills and lights a pipe, sends one puff of smoke to the heavens and
another to the earth. The pipe is then handed to the sachem, who fills
his mouth with smoke, and, turning from left to right with the sun,
slowly puffs it out over the heads of the councilors, who are sitting in a
circle. He then hands the pipe to the man on his left, and it is smoked in
turn by each person until it has been passed around the circle. The
sachem then explains the object for which the council is called. Each
person in the way and manner he chooses tells what he thinks should be
done in the case. If a majority of the council is agreed as to action, the
sachem does not speak, but may simply announce the decision. But in
some cases there may be protracted debate, which is carried on with
great deliberation. In case of a tie, the sachem is expected to speak.
It is considered dishonorable for any man to reverse his decision after
having spoken.
Such are the organic elements of the Wyandot government.
_FUNCTIONS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT._
It is the function of government to preserve rights and enforce the
performance of duties. Rights and duties are co-relative. Rights imply
duties, and duties imply rights. The right inhering in the party of the

first part imposes a duty on the party of the second part. The right and
its co-relative duty are inseparable parts of a relation that must be
maintained by government; and the relations which governments are
established to maintain may be treated under the general head of rights.
In Wyandot government these rights may be classed as follows:
First--Rights of marriage. Second--Rights to names. Third--Rights to
personal adornments. Fourth--Rights of order in encampments and
migrations. Fifth--Rights of property. Sixth--Rights of person.
Seventh--Rights of community. Eighth--Rights of religion.
To maintain rights, rules of conduct are established, not by formal
enactment, but by regulated usage. Such custom-made laws may be
called regulations.
_MARRIAGE REGULATIONS._
Marriage between members of the same gens is forbidden, but
consanguineal marriages between persons of different gentes are
permitted. For example, a man may not marry his mother's sister's
daughter, as she belongs to the same gens with himself; but he can
marry his father's sister's daughter, because she belongs to a different
gens.
Husbands retain all their rights and privileges in their own gentes,
though they live with the gentes of their wives. Children, irrespective
of sex, belong to the gens of the mother. Men and women must marry
within the tribe. A woman taken to wife from without the tribe must
first be adopted into some family of a gens other than that to which the
man belongs. That a woman may take for a husband a man without the
tribe he must also be adopted into the family of some gens other than
that of the woman. What has been called by some ethnologists
endogamy and exogamy are correlative parts of one regulation, and the
Wyandots, like all other tribes of which we have any knowledge in
North America, are both endogamous and exogamous.
Polygamy is permitted, but the wives must belong to different gentes.

The first wife remains the head of the household. Polyandry is
prohibited.
A man seeking a wife consults her mother, sometimes direct, and
sometimes through his own mother. The mother of the girl advises with
the women councilors to obtain their consent, and the young people
usually submit quietly to their decision. Sometimes the women
councilors consult with the men.
When a girl is betrothed, the man makes such presents to the mother as
he can. It is customary to consummate the marriage before the end of
the moon in which the betrothal is made. Bridegroom and bride make
promises of faithfulness to the parents and women councilors of both
parties. It is customary to give a marriage feast, in which the gentes of
both parties take part. For a short time at least, bride and groom live
with the bride's mother, or rather in the original household of the bride.
The time when they will set up housekeeping for themselves is usually
arranged before marriage.
In the event of the death of the mother, the children belong to her sister
or to her nearest female kin, the matter being settled by the council
women