In exceptional eases tribes combined into eon fcderavie, sometimes accidental and temporary, at other times built tip in steady pursuance of a definite policy, as among the Iroquois and Creeks.
Land was tile common property of the clan, tribe• or confederacy. excepting in certain tribes of and the northwest coast, where it is asserted that individual ownership existed.
tinnier. and other natural produets were also free, and hospitality was so much a car dinal virtue that it might almost be said that everything which was not hedged in by some sacred ta bit 1`71.: 19,1111114111 property within the tribe and might be had for the asking, or with out it if there seemed need. While this system almost eliminated the individual pauper, it killed ambition and hindered advancement. by it impossible for any man to rise far above the general level. Accumulation was impossible, and it en what property he might possess was usually destroyed at his dent h. The niggard was rated with the coward. and in tribes a man rose to the highest rank of distinction by giving away all that lie awned. Along the Lower Colombia and the northwest coast this public surrender of the savings of a hi fit illle was a recol.mized tribal custmn known as the potlatell.
Slavery was a regular institution cat the Pa cific Coast from Alaska to California, the slaves being prisoners of war, their children and de.
seendants, who thus constituted a permanent S!11Ve. within the tribe, emideinn•d to hard labor, harsh treatment, sale, or death at the will of their master:. Slavery of a milder type seems to have existed among the South Atlantic tribes. In more modern time, the Southern Indians fol lowed the ple of the colonists, and became the owners of negro slaves.
Numerous societies existed for various pur poses, military. religious. and social. 'Ile plains tribes had a custom by which two young men mutually agreed to lee.mie partners or 'friends' through life. the compact being sometimes rati lled by a public exchange of names.
NVonian. while subjeet to her husband in ordi nary affair.; and debarred from certain societies and had it well-defined rights of her own. She was complete mistress in household affairs, and among the Eastern tribes hail either a voice or a representation in councils. NVith the Iroquois all important questions must he passed )pon by a co Heil of the women. who alone had power to declare war. The right of adoption. which meant the decision of a cap tive's fate, rested also with the women. In gen eral her position was highest •in the agricultural tribes. In the division of labor most of the Leavy work fell to her share. while the dangerous and arduous undertakings belonged to the man. Polygamy was reeremized in most of the tribes xcept ing I he