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HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES.
a subordinate place; but if a mythical person invoked for the occasion, then to the latter belongs the credit of planning the confederacy.
The Iroquois affirm that the confederacy, as formed by this council, with its powers, functions, and mode of administration, has come down to them through many generations to the present time with scarcely a change in its internal organization. When the Tuscaroras were subsequently admitted, their sachems were allowed by courtesy to sit as equals in the general council, but the original number of sachems was not increased, and in strictness those of the Tuscaroras formed no part of the ruling body.
The general features of the Iroquois Confederacy may be summarized in the following propositions:
| I. The Confederacy was a union of Five Tribes, composed of common gentes, under one government on the basis of equality; each Tribe remaining independent in all matters pertaining to local self-government. |
| II. It created a General Council of Sachems, who were limited in number, equal in rank and authority, and invested with supreme powers over all matters pertaining to the Confederacy. |
| III. Fifty Sachemships were created and named in perpetuity in certain gentes of the several Tribes; with power in these gentes to fill vacancies, as often as they occurred, by election from among their respective members, and with the further power to depose from office for cause; but the right to invest these Sachems with office was reserved to the General Council. |
| IV. The Sachems of the Confederacy were also Sachems in their respective Tribes, and with the Chiefs of these Tribes formed the Council of each, which was supreme over all matters pertaining to the Tribe exclusively. |
| V. Unanimity in the Council of the Confederacy was made essential to every public act. |
| VI. In the General Council the Sachems voted by Tribes, which gave to each Tribe a negative upon the others. |
| VII. The Council of each Tribe had power to convene the General Council; but the latter had no power to convene itself. |
| VIII. The General Council was open to the orators of the people for the discussion of public questions; but the Council alone decided. |
