The government of these tribes is of a similar character throughout. Each tribe has at its head a chief, whose office is usually, but not always, hereditary. Provided the eldest son of a chief be tolerably well qualified for the post, he is suffered to assume the leadership when his father dies, or becomes too old for work. Should the tribe be dissatisfied with him, they elect a leader from among the sub-chiefs. There is often a double system of government, two chiefs of equal power being appointed, one of whom manages all matters of war, and the other effects the administration of domestic policy.
It often happens that, although the head chief of the tribe is nominally the ruler, and holds the first place, the real power lies in the second or third chief, who pays to his superior every deference which is due to his position, but is practically the leader and commander of the tribe. This was the case among the Mandans when Mr. Catlin visited them. The head chief, though a man of abilities and courage, and therefore respected and feared by the people, was by no means loved by them, on account of his haughty and overbearing demeanor. The real leader of the tribe was the second chief, named Mah-to-toh-pa, i. e. the Four Bears, a name which he got from an exclamation of the enemy, who said that he came at them “like four bears.” Some of the adventures of this extraordinary man will be mentioned in the course of the following pages.
Great as is the power of the chief, it is much more limited than that which is enjoyed by the chiefs of the African tribes. The American chief has no control over life, or limb, or liberty. He takes the lead in council, and if an offender be cited before the councillors, his voice carries great weight with it, but nothing more. Should he be the war chief, he cannot compel a single man to follow him to battle, nor can he punish one of his followers for deserting him. Any of the warriors, even the very youngest, may follow or desert his chief as he pleases, the principal check against desertion being the contempt with which a warrior is sure to be regarded if he leaves a chief who is worthy of his office.
The chiefs have, as a rule, no advantage over the other members of the tribe in point of wealth. A chief would soon lose the popularity on which his influence depends if he were to amass wealth for himself. By virtue of his office, he has a larger house or tent than the rest of the tribe, and he generally possesses a few more wives. But he is often actually poorer than most of the warriors, thinking himself bound in honor to distribute among the tribe the spoils that he takes in war. Many chiefs even dress worse than the warriors under their command, so as not to excite envy, and only assume their splendid dress of office on great occasions.
The question of dress is really an important one. Varying as it does among the different tribes, there is a general character which runs through the whole.
Every man without distinction wears a scanty dress much like the “cheripa” which has already been described, but is very much smaller. In battle or hunting, and in all cases in which exertion is required, he contents himself with this single garment; but when he is enjoying himself at home, he assumes his full costume. He wears a pair of leggings reaching to the hips, and falling as low as the ankles, sometimes spreading well over them. These leggings are mostly adorned with little bells, bits of fur, or similar decorations; and if the wearer be a successful warrior, he fringes them along the sides with tufts of hair taken from the head of a slain enemy.
He has also a loose coat descending to the knees, and ornamented in a similar manner with feathers or scalp-locks, and, when the owner has performed any conspicuous feat of valor, he makes a rude painting of the event. This answers the same purpose as the Victoria Cross among ourselves. Although it is conferred by the man himself, it is equally valuable. No man would dare to depict on his robe any deed of valor which he had not performed, as he would be challenged by the other warriors to prove his right to the decoration, and, if he failed to do so, would be utterly scorned by them. The chief Mah-to-toh-pa represented on his robe a series of events in which he had killed no less than fourteen of the enemy with his own hand. Sometimes, when the tribe uses skin huts or wigwams, the warriors also paint their adventures upon the walls of their dwellings.
From a similar spirit the scars and wounds received in war are kept covered with scarlet paint, and when a man has succeeded in killing a grizzly bear he is entitled to wear its skin, claws, and teeth. The usual mode of so doing is to string the claws into necklaces and bracelets, and to make the skin into robes. Sometimes they dress the skin without removing the claws, and wear it in such a fashion that the claws are conspicuously seen. Owing to the extreme ferocity, strength, and cunning of the bear, to kill one of these animals is considered equivalent to killing a warrior, and the claw necklace is as honorable an ornament as the much prized scalp. Some of the most valiant hunters have killed several of these animals, and it is a point of honor with them to appear on great occasions with all their spoils, so that they have to exercise considerable ingenuity, and display some forty huge claws about their persons in a sufficiently conspicuous manner.
All the dress of a North American Indian is made of skin, mostly that of the deer, and in dressing it the natives are unrivalled, contriving to make a leather which is as soft as silk, is nearly white, and which may be wetted and dried any number of times without becoming harsh.
The skin is first washed in strong lye, made of wood-ashes and water, so as to loosen the hair, which is then scraped off. The hide is next stretched tightly upon the ground upon a frame, or by means of a number of wooden pegs driven firmly into the ground. In this position it remains for several days, the brains of the animal being spread thickly upon it, and rubbed into it. The next process is to scrape it carefully with a blunt knife made of the shoulder-blade of the bison, the native tanner pressing heavily upon it, and scraping every portion of the hide.