Aboriginal Governance

Vocabulary affluent superficially censured confederacy prestigious lavishly diplomacy prerequisite sachems lineages conciliator

The ancestors of Canada’s First Nations all lived in "small scale" societies, in the sense that day-to-day contacts of individual members were usually limited to close relatives. Kinship connections strongly influenced patterns of social and economic interaction, and they frequently determined a person’s position in a society. As well, all groups esteemed cooperation and sharing among kinfolk. This important feature of Native life found expression in numerous ways, but without exception leaders were expected to be generous. Even in those nations where individuals or families were highly status conscious, gift giving, rather than the hoarding of wealth or private ownership, was the key to enhanced social position, even among the most affluent of the Pacific slope.

Nations differed in the sizes of the kinship groupings, the manner in which people traced descent, and the degree to which heritage determined a person’s social and political position. Generalizing very broadly, there were two kinds of societies. One featured clans, or large kinship groups claiming a mythical ancestor, and the other emphasized small groups of closely related families.

Superficially, politics seemed to be male dominated, but in reality men held their positions based on the ancestry of their mothers. Furthermore, the ranking matrons of the various clans conducted assemblies that nominated, censured, and even recalled the sachems. Successful warriors, great orators, and men who earned recognition for other achievements could also acquire the status of chief, but they could not be voting members of the village council and they could not pass their titles on to their descendants.

The confederacies, such as those of the Huron and the Five Nations Iroquois, knitted various nations and villages together. Confederacies, whose members included the sachems of the member clans, promoted harmonious inter-village relations and co-ordinated external affairs, particularly warfare. Decision making at all levels was by consensus of the decision makers- a practice common to all Native groups, irrespective of their particular political organization. Significantly, the councils lacked any coercive powers; normally, kin and peer pressure ensured compliance. Once a council reached a decision, its members customarily selected one of their best orators to announce it. After contact, Europeans often mistook these "speakers" for prominent leaders.

Political leadership was fluid in the sense that group members followed the man who was best suited to lead them in the task at hand. Usually the "situational leader" was a married elder who was a superior hunter, a generous man, a skilled orator, or a good conciliator. When a number of local boreal-forest groups came together to form summer camp, the winter headman who commanded the greatest respect became the camp’s leader.

Political Life of the Plains

The social and political life of the Plains buffalo hunters share some of the characteristics of both the Iroquoian and Pacific-slope clan-based societies and Subarctic and Arctic societies where this type of organization was weak or absent. Partly this was because camp sizes on the plains varied with the seasons. The population of a winter buffalo - pound village, for instance, ranged from twenty-five to one hundred or more, which was about the same size as the summer encampments of the boreal-forest groups. During the late summer, on the other hand, the buffalo-hunting and sun-dance camps could number more than one thousand inhabitants, about the size of the winter villages of the Iroquoian and Pacific-slope nations.

In Plains societies, a chief and informal council of elders, chosen for their leadership abilities, oversaw the affairs of the summer and winter camps. When several groups gathered in the summer, the oldest and most respected winter leader acted as spokesman for the combined group. As in other regions, decision making by consensus prevailed, and persuasion rather than coercion was the preferred way for elders to implement their individual and collective wills. Associations of adult male warriors, popularly known as "warrior societies," enforced rules as necessary. Society members could seize a defiant person’s property and impose physical punishment; however, this was rarely necessary.

Although Plains nations were very concerned about social status, its attainment was largely an individual quest of men. Typically, a major goal for a man was to become a member of a warrior society. These societies were the most prestigious of all the various men’s associations. To be eligible for membership, a man had to earn status and wealth through demonstrations of fighting and hunting prowess as a member of other, lower-ranked organizations. Among the Blackfoot people, for example, associations existed for different age groups: boys in their early teens, young adult men, and older men who no longer hunted or engaged in warfare. Each society had its own requirements, and a man usually bought the emblems and rights to the rituals of a society from one of its members, who in turn purchased access to a higher-ranked association. Often men who had gained a great deal of respect and status publicly proclaimed it by lavishly decorating their dwelling with pictographs that recalled their best-known achievements.

In Native Canada, diplomacy and trade were intertwined. Gift giving was the cement of inter-nation diplomacy. Leaders of unrelated nations met and presented gifts of equal value to each other as symbolic gestures of good will. Often the exchange was a lengthy affair, which involved feasting, speech making, and the ritual smoking of the calumet, a long-stemmed, decorated tobacco pipe. Exchanges of this kind were an integral part of inter-nation trade because they served to create or renew peaceful relations between groups that were a prerequisite for regular commerce. This explains why peace chiefs or heads of lineages usually controlled external trade. When the leaders of different groups were keen to establish long-lasting bonds, they often arranged marriages between their respective kin.

(Ray, Arthur J., 1996, pp. 25-30. Excerpts. Reprinted with permission from Lester Publishing Limited and Key Porter Books