| OCR Text |
Show 1800] EASTERN INDIANS 157 weak point seems to have been the lack of provision for an executive, but this was largely compensated for by the power of public opinion in compelling obedience to decrees of the council. Whatever its inherent weakness, the league was so successful that for centuries it enjoyed complete supremacy over its neighbors. It was, apparently, not intended to be limited to the five original tribes, for overtures were made to the related Erie, Huron, and other tribes to join the league^ The only success was in the case of the Tuscarora, who in 1715 migrated from their southern home and joined the league under certain restrictions, making the group the Six Nations. An unimportant branch of the family between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron was also included at that time. The other divisions of the stock were treated as enemies, and many of the most savage campaigns of the league were waged against the Erie and the Huron. This extraordinary scheme of representative government was made . possible by the social system which had developed among the Iroquois, and which is well expressed in their mode of communal living. N The tribes of the stock were organized on a totemic clan basis, with * clan inheritance in the mother's line; exogamy with regard to the clan was strictly observed. The dwellings of the Iroquois1 were regularly the fathous " long houses," which were from fifty to one hundred feet long and fifteen to 1 Morgan, Houses and House Life, 64. |
