Indeed, the unanimous principle was the ruling one of the Tribes might declare war and conclude peace, confederacy.

and exercise "*

all

powers of sovereignty on

Schoolcraffs Notes, 278, etc. Schooleraffs Notes, 1 1 8, 1 20,

their

pelled to join it. etc.

"The time when the confederacy was formed is not known, but it was presumed to be of a recent date, and the Oneidas and Cayugas are said to have been comown account,

Those two tribes were

the younger, and the three others the older members of the confederacy." Gallatin.

"The

Oneidas^ and

their children."

Cayugas

Zinxcndorf.

are

THE INDIAN TRIBES

but national or confederated action required the concurrence of the tribes, and hence, when a decision was made, it was

all

clothed with all the power of the most full popular will. 1

There

suffrage among them, and yet females had the power, by adoption, to rescue prisoners from death, and to com

was no female

When so determined by the matrons,

mand a cessation of war.

the braves returned from the conflict without compromiting the

character of the tribe for bravery. But this feature in their to all the common Indian customs was nations. It remains to

shown that they had any forms of government peculiar Their power was in their confederation, themselves.

be to

they apparently differed from other nations only in the number of tribes and in the perpetuity of the organiza

and

in

tion,

this

other nations securing the same results, in case of war,