Wyandot Government: A Short Study of Tribal Society | Page 6

continue in the commission of similar crimes, it will be lawful for any
person to kill him; and if killed, rightfully or wrongfully, his clan will
not avenge his death.
Outlawry of the highest degree makes it the duty of any member of the
tribe who may meet with the offender to kill him.

_MILITARY GOVERNMENT._
The management of military affairs inheres in the military council and
chief. The military council is composed of all the able-bodied men of
the tribe; the military chief is chosen by the council from the Porcupine
gens. Each gentile chief is responsible for the military training of the
youth under his authority. There is usually one or more potential
military chiefs, who are the close companions and assistants of the
chief in time of war, and in case of the death of the chief, take his place
in the order of seniority.
Prisoners of war are adopted into the tribe or killed. To be adopted into
the tribe, it is necessary that the prisoner should be adopted into some
family. The warrior taking the prisoner has the first right to adopt him,
and his male or female relatives have the right in the order of their
kinship. If no one claims the prisoner for this purpose, he is caused to
run the gauntlet as a test of his courage.
If at his trial he behaves manfully, claimants are not wanting, but if he
behaves disgracefully he is put to death.
_FELLOWHOOD._
There is an interesting institution found among the Wyandots, as
among some other of our North American tribes, namely, that of
fellowhood. Two young men agree to be perpetual friends to each other,
or more than brothers. Each reveals to the other the secrets of his life,
and counsels with him on matters of importance, and defends him from
wrong and violence, and at his death is chief mourner.
* * * * *
The government of the Wyandots, with the social organization upon
which it is based, affords a typical example of tribal government
throughout North America. Within that area there are several hundred
distinct governments. In so great a number there is great variety, and in
this variety we find different degrees of organization, the degrees of
organization being determined by the differentiation of the functions of

the government and the correlative specialization of organic elements.
Much has yet to be done in the study of these governments before safe
generalizations may be made. But enough is known to warrant the
following statement:
Tribal government in North America is based on kinship in that the
fundamental units of social organization are bodies of consanguineal
kindred either in the male or female line; these units being what has
been well denominated "gentes."
These "gentes" are organized into tribes by ties of relationship and
affinity, and this organization is of such a character that the man's
position in the tribe is fixed by his kinship. There is no place in a tribe
for any person whose kinship is not fixed, and only those persons can
be adopted into the tribe who are adopted into some family with
artificial kinship specified. The fabric of Indian society is a complex
tissue of kinship. The warp is made of streams of kinship blood, and
the woof of marriage ties.
With most tribes military and civil affairs are differentiated. The
functions of civil government are in general differentiated only to this
extent, that executive functions are performed by chiefs and sachems,
but these chiefs and sachems are also members of the council. The
council is legislature and court. Perhaps it were better to say that the
council is the court whose decisions are law, and that the legislative
body properly has not been developed.
In general, crimes are well defined. Procedure is formal, and forms are
held as of such importance that error therein is prima facie evidence
that the subject-matter formulated was false.
When one gens charges crime against a member of another, it can of its
own motion proceed only to retaliation. To prevent retaliation, the gens
of the offender must take the necessary steps to disprove the crime, or
to compound or punish it. The charge once made is held as just and true
until it has been disproved, and in trial the cause of the defendant is
first stated. The anger of the prosecuting gens must be placated.

In the tribal governments there are many institutions, customs, and
traditions which give evidence of a former condition in which society
was based not upon kinship, but upon marriage.
From a survey of the facts it seems highly probably that kinship society,
as it exists among the tribes of North America, has developed from
connubial society, which is discovered elsewhere on the globe. In fact,
there are a