Economics of the Iroquois

Introduction

Sketch of the Economic Systems of the North American Indians.

The Arctic, the Barren, the Forest, the Plain, and the Desert-Oasis Environments; — the domestic economy characteristic of the Barren and Arctic Environments, the village economy characteristic of the Western Forest Environment, the republican clan economy characteristic of the Plain Environment, the communal clan economy characteristic of the Desert-Oasis Environment i

The economic systems of the Eastern Forest Environment "

CHAPTER I. — The Environment of the Iroquois. The transitional state of Iroquois culture 13

Location and previous history 13

Nature of environment in seventeenth century 14

A geographic unity 14

Topography 15

Hydrography 15

Climate 16

Potential utilities : — Food products — animal and vegetable ; Raw

materials — animal, vegetable, and mineral 16

The Hurons, a related tribe living in a similar environment 19

CHAPTER II. — The Productive Activities of the Iroquois

Manner of production: — root grubbing, and fruit and nut gathering;

hunting and trapping ; fishing ; agriculture 20

Relative importance of these different activities : — the growing tendency of the Iroquois to depend for subsistence upon agriculture 23

Manufactures 26

iii iv ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS.

CHAPTER III.— The Organization of Producers. The sexual division of labor 2 7

The organization of producers 3°

Instances of the existence of the domestic economy 3°

The clan economy characteristic of the Iroquois 3 1

The women's agricultural clan 3 1

The men's clan, primarily an organization of warriors and secondarily

a hunting body 3 2

Relative influence of the two clans upon the life of the community as

a whole ; the prominence of the women's clan 38

Tribal organization 39

Confederate organization 4°

The servile class of producers — captives and effeminate men 41

The position of the medicine men in production 42

CHAPTER IV.— The Wealth of the Iroquois. The concrete economic concept of wealth 44

Primary production goods :

For general use — the knife and axe 44

For hunting — the bow and arrow, traps and snares, the dog 46

For fishing — the harpoon, the net, the weir 48

For agriculture — the wooden rake, the digging stick, the hoe 49

Secondary production goods :

For the preparation of food — the weighted drill and spindle-whorl, 5°

cooking and eating utensils of earthenware, wood, and bark. ... 53 For the making of clothing — scrapers, bone awls, and needles, etc. Means of transportation — bretelles and burden straps, snow-shoes

and sleds, canoes 54

Consumption goods : Articles of food —

Maize preparations the staple of village life 57

Meat and fish the principal articles of food during the hunt

and the fishing expedition 5^

Beverages 5§

Stored surplus 5^

Clothings and furnishings, — textiles and articles of skin 60

Armor 61

Shelter, — stationary dwellings of wood and bark 61

The village and its fortifications 64

The abstract economic concept of wealth; the Iroquois use of wampum

The prestige value of wampum 67

CONTENTS. V

CHAPTER V.— The Distribution of Wealth. The confederacy 69

The tribe 69

The men's clan 7°

The women's clan 7 r

Inheritance 7 2

The influence of the clan principle of distribution upon the consumption group 73

The place of the individual in the distributive system 74

The medicine men — a class above the clan and exacting tribute 76

The captives — a class below the clan and rendering tribute 78

CHAPTER VI.— Exchange. A system of barter between tribes 79

Trade carried on to a great extent by the men's clans as such 80

Means of effecting exchange ; — present giving 81

The use of wampum as a medium of exchange 82

CHAPTER I.— The Family. The two forms of the family in general 85

The paternal family, the one form of organization known to the domestic and village economy 85

The paternal family, the unit of consumption in the republican clan

economies 86

The maternal family characteristic of the society dominated by the

communal clan 86

The origin of the maternal form of the family to be sought in the transitional economy in which the women's clan monopolized

the agricultural surplus 87

Example in primitive Semitic life 87

The maternal family in the Iroquois village 87

Influence of the men's clan 88

Obligations of "he marriage contract 88

The advantages on the side of the wife 89

The elevated position of the wife in the Iroquois family 9°

The reappearance of the paternal family during the hunting season... 93

VI ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS.

CHAPTER II. — State and Government. Unsatisfactoriness of the kinship theory of Iroquois society 9<

The economic basis of Iroquois political institutions 9*

The political life of the Iroquois sedentary community; — the gentile government representative of both clans, and more particularly

of the women's clan; — the functions of the gentile government. 97

The village or tribal government ioi

The council of the Elders 103

The functions of the tribal council iof

The nature of Iroquois laws, — custom-made rules of conduct, the inviolability of which was guaranteed by the council 107

The chiefs the executive agents of the council 107

The representative nature of the government shown by the fact that

public opinion was the only sanction of the laws io£

Incorrigibility punished by exclusion from the organization na

Treason punished by death 1 1 1

The confederate government, a council composed of gentile chiefs... 112 The system of voting in the council of the confederacy a proof of the

economic basis of the government 113

The general council of the confederacy 1 14

The functions of the council of the confederacy 114

The executive machinery of the confederacy 115

The government of the men's clan on the hunt and on the war-path.. 115

The Iroquois aristocracy "7

The disfranchised class 118

The share in sovereignty possessed by the medicine men 120

CHAPTER III.— Religion. The economic foundation of all primitive religions 121

Fetishism the result of the domestic economy 121

The religion characteristic of hunters and herders 122

The religion characteristic of the agricultural community 123

When economic life is in a transitional state, religious development

is found to correspond I2 5

Deities of the Iroquois 126

Traces of fetishism in Iroquois religion I2 6

Polytheism the dominant characteristic of their religion 127

Deification of various animal types of importance to the hunter 127

Deification of certain species of plants of importance to agriculture.. 12S Predominance of animal worship resulting from religious conservatism 120

Deification of natural phenomena influencing economic life : — the Sky,

the Sun, etc 12c

CONTENTS. Vll

Ceremonials connected with hunting deities 135

Ceremonials connected with agricultural deities 137

Organization of worshipers corresponding to organization of producers 138

The beginnings of a Priesthood 139

Secret societies 139

The medicine men a separate religious class 140

CHAPTER V.— General Culture. Economic conditions explain the characteristic features of the general

culture of the Iroquois *47

Their fine physical development *47

The extent of their astronomical knowledge 148

The extent of their knowledge of medicine 148

Their knowledge of agriculture methods 149

The Iroquois calendar I 5°

Development of system of communication and record keeping 151

Tact, conversational ability, etc r 55

Esthetic taste ! 55

INTRODUCTION.

The investigations carried on under Professor Keasbey's direction by students of the seminar during- the past few years have led to the formulation of certain general conclusions in regard to the development of primitive societies.

An economy, according to Professor Keasbey, may be defined as " a system of activities whereby the potential utilities inherent in the environment are through utilization converted into actual utilities." 1 The motives making for utilization are everywhere the same ; nevertheless, since the potential utilities of one environment differ from those of another, processes of utilization must differ accordingly. Starting from this principle, it has been found convenient to plot off the surface of the earth into a series of typical environments ; c. g. the jungle, the arctic, the barren, the forest, the plain, the desert oasis, the river valley, etc. The nature of the potential utilities characteristic of each of these environments seems in every case to determine the process of utilization and hence the economic life of the inhabitants. Everywhere similar conditions seem to result in similar forms of utilization. Between the economic activities and the social institutions of mankind there is also perceptible a relation of cause and effect. Everywhere like systems of utilization give rise to like familial, political, and ecclesiastical institutions.

The work assigned me has been confined chiefly to the primitive societies of North America. The results gained from an intensive study of Iroquois life, I shall present in this monograph.

In order to make plain the significance of Iroquois institutions it will be advisable, in a general way, to relate their environment with the other environments of North America, and their manner of life with the manners of life of other Indian tribes. At the

1,1 A Classification of Economics." Reprint from Proc. Am. Philos. Soc, Vol. XLI, No. 169, page 1.

1 1 beginning of the sixteenth century, North America, exclusive of Mexico, included several more or less distinct cultural areas, which may be enumerated in the following order: first, the Arctic Environment, extending all the way across the northern-most zone of the continent, its southern boundary being the indefinite line marking the transition from the frigid to the cold temperate zone; second, the Barren Environment, stretching from the Rocky Mountains on the east to the Pacific coast ranges on the west, and from the Columbia River on the north to the Colorado River valley on the south ; third, the Forest Environment, including the eastern portion of the continent from the Atlantic to the western edge of the forest belt, and also the narrow region lying along the Pacific coast west of the Coast Ranges ; fourth, the Plain Environment, extending from the edge of the forest belt to the Rocky Mountains ; and fifth, the Desert-Oasis Environment, stretching from the Colorado River southward to the Gulf and into Mexico. Each of these environments possessed certain characteristic features which determined the manner of life of the early inhabitants.

In the sterile and ice-bound environment of the Arctic area, the basis of subsistence was fish, whales, and seals. Even this food supply was often scanty and difficult to obtain. In general, the conditions under which man carried on the struggle for existence were extremely hard, and allowed very little opportunity for progress.

• The western slope of the Rocky Mountains and the great plain adjoining well deserved the epithet " barren." This region, cut off by the coast ranges from the moist breezes of the Pacific and by the Rocky Mountains from the Atlantic winds, was an arid and sterile desert with little or no vegetation and but a scanty supply of fish and small game. Thus the Barren, like the Arctic Environment, offered little encouragement to primitive progress.

The eastern forest region rejoiced in a mild climate and a plentiful rainfall. Before the European settlement the whole district was covered by a forest of varying density, the trees growing thickest in the temperate and warm temperate parts of the east and south, and becoming fewer in the north toward Hudson's Bay, and in the west throughout the park-like region in the

INTRODUCTION. 3

vicinity of the Mississippi. The whole section was stocked with fish and game. From the Great Lakes southward, the climate was warm and the soil fertile enough to encourage more or less cultivation of maize in the river valleys and open spaces and clearings in the woods. Generally speaking, it was an environment conducing to a hunting and fishing life, with a growing dependence upon maize culture toward the south.

The western forest environment, stretching from the Columbia River valley down along the Pacific coast, was characterized by an equable oceanic climate and by an abundant flora and fauna. It was especially rich in fish, small game, nuts, roots, etc. The main difference between the western and the eastern forest environment is to be found in the fact that in the latter the main supply was game, while in the former fish took the chief place.

The Great Plain, between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, though traversed by several large river systems tributary to the Mississippi, was a comparatively arid region with but a scanty rainfall. Hence there was but little vegetation. Nevertheless, this section of the continent was originally well stocked with game. Over its vast extent great herds of buffalo ranged, subsisting on the long succulent grass with which the prairie was covered, and migrating from north to south, and back again, according to the seasons. Before the Discovery the Prairie was not inhabited, except by occasional bands of buffalo hunters on expeditions from their villages on the Mississippi and its great western tributaries. The introduction of the horse gave a decided impetus to buffalo hunting as a means of livelihood. After this event the great stock of the Sioux pushed farther and farther into the wilderness, and developed more and more perfectly the economy in social life typical of nomadic plain-dwelling people the world over.

The region south of the barren plateau, between the Colorado River valley and the Gulf of Mexico, has been called the desert-oasis environment. Here "the sterile highland was deeply gashed by swift-flowing rivers, which found their sources in the Rocky Mountains and emptied into the Gulf of California on the one hand, and into the Gulf of Mexico on the other. In the deep river valleys were rich alluvial deposits which, with the help of irrigation, could be, and were, cultivated. Hence the aboriginal inhabitants of the region were gathered in small isolated agricultural communities, depending for subsistence chiefly upon maize culture.

The environmental conditions of each of the areas just described required in every case the adoption by the primitive inhabitants of an economic system suitable to their surroundings. Their economy in turn determined the nature of their social institutions. In fact, the forms of the family, of the state, and of religion among any given people, are, according to the hypothesis, to be regarded as sociological consequents of certain economic antecedents : in other words, they are the outcome of the peculiar systems of production, consumption, and distribution that have proved most advantageous in a given environment. In the barren environment of the great western desert, marked by extremes of temperature and poverty of flora and fauna, the food-quest consisted primarily of root grubbing and acorn gathering, with some fishing, and hunting of small animals. The means of production consisted of such inventions as were needed to procure food ; as, for instance, the bow and arrow, the digging stick, and the basket for carrying roots and nuts. The production group in this case was the family ; the wife gathering roots and nuts and bringing up the children, while the husband obtained what fish and game he could find and acted as defender of the group. Anything less than this mere sexual association of labor was impossible, if the species was to be preserved. Anything more extensive in the line of cooperation was likewise made impossible by the scantiness of the food supply, and the consequent necessity of dispersion in the smallest possible groups. " The Mountain Snakes," says Schoolcraft, " exist in small detached bodies and single families, and change their locations so widely that they seem to have no particular claim to any portion.'' 1 Similar circumstances as regards scarcity of food resulted in a similar manner of life during a large part of the year among the Esquimaux of the Arctic region. We are told that " The Esquimaux live in

1 Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 224.

INTRODUCTION. 5

the most perfect state of independence of each other, — the youth, as soon as he is able to build a kaiak and to support himself, no longer observes any family ties, but goes where his fancy takes him." Obviously, therefore, the consumption and distribution group must also have been represented by the family : of exchange, there was no question.

From the point of view of politics, also, among the Esquimaux, as among the Indians of the Great Desert, the family was at once the largest and the smallest group. Mere congregation of these units might occur at certain seasons in spots where acorns or fish were plentiful. At the most, however, only a loose temporary organization resulted. The family remained the social unit and wandered off again when it pleased, a complete political and production group. Within the family, husband and wife associated their labor in producing the surplus ; nevertheless, the female, isolated from others of her own sex, was entirely dependent upon the male for defense and hence for access to the source of supply. The man, then, may be said to have controlled the social surplus ; hence sovereignty belonged to him, and he wielded unlimited authority over the little group of which he was the head : in other words, the rule of the husband and father was the only government known to these domestic economists. The religion and morals of this stage of culture were of the simplest description. Their religion was the lowest form of Fetishism — abject fear of disutilities and reverence of utilities.

A stage above the domestic economists of the Arctic region and the Great Desert stood the village economists of the western forest. True, the latter had made no distinct advance in methods of production nor in political organization ; yet from the economic position which they occupied, some progress in these respects became possible. On the northwest coast, the periodical ascent of the rivers by the salmon at the spawning season afforded the aborigines an abundant and regular food supply. Families, therefore, did not need to separate as they increased in numbers ; on the contrary, large gentile groups remained together, settled near the good fishing places, while their means of production tended to become preeminently a stock of implements and inventions of especial use in fishing". As a consequence, to the acquisitive goods of the domestic economy were added a new set of commodities ; nevertheless there was no material advance in the methods of production. Though the abundance of the food supply rendered possible the congregation of large numbers of families, the nature of the supply called for no great amount of cooperation among producers. In the construction and defense of the fish-weir there was indeed some combination, but this was of the loosest kind. In the main, the family continued to be the unit, of production and consumption — the husband attending to the catching of the fish, and the women of the family looking after the other productive activities. 1 The family support was further augmented by slave labor, now made possible by the abundance of the food supply, and also by the fact that the fishing implements supplied to the captive slave could not be used as weapons to attack the master. The fact that slave labor was practicable also caused some slight differences in distribution as between different families. Hence occurred a faint manifestation of the phenomenon of prestige value. Some families were richer than others lii slaves, and hence in stores of food, blankets, etc. Furthermore, the more slaves a man had, the more wives he could own, since the surplus product of the slaves' labor could be used to support these women. Slaves therefore came to be regarded as a sort of standard of value, in terms of which a man's wealth was sometimes estimated.

The introduction of the village economy wrought little essential change in the constitution of the state. The village was, in the main, only a congregation of many domestic economies. There might be, of course, some temporary military organization for purposes of defense ; undoubtedly, too, some general influence was constantly exerted by one or two of the older and richer men, for the purpose of keeping peace and order among the different families : nevertheless, the political and governmental system differed but little from that of domestic economists. Each family or gens in the village continued to form a separate political and governmental unit, in which the father or patriarch was the sovereign power.

'Keasbey, "Inst, of Society," Internet, Mo., I, 383, 386.

INTRODUCTION. 7

So far but one really fundamental type of economy has appeared. This is the " domestic " system, adapted to regions where the nature of the food-supply makes cooperation not advantageous. Even the village economy was a mere aggregation of domestic economies. Yet a distinction must be made between the village and the domestic systems, because in the former the occasional appearance of a new principle is noticeable. The management of the weir in the salmon fishing season and the defense of their collective riparian rights caused at certain seasons the formation of an organization among the men of the different families. This temporary union of the men of the village into a band, each member of which cooperated with all the rest in order to carry out certain definite purposes, was the clan : hence, for the time being, the family as a productive and political unit disappeared, and the clan took its place.

Where the cooperative method of production had through force of environmental circumstances reached a fuller development and become comparatively permanent, the general character of village life was correspondingly altered. The settlement was no longer a mere aggregation of families each economically and politically independent of the others. On the contrary, its chief productive activities were carried on by an association of cooperating individuals, bound together not merely by family affection, but by the ties of economic interest. In order to keep up the population, the family remained in existence, but it had no economic function beyond that of consumption. As a productive association, it had become merged in the clan ; and political sovereignty passed from the individual fathers of families to the clan as a whole. The latter now controlled the access to the source of supply, and consequently had absolute power over such of the inhabitants of the village as were without the limits of the clan, and were dependent upon it for support or defense. Government, therefore, was representative only of the clan. In the establishment of this clan principle is to be found the origin of organized society. " The clan," says Professor Keasbey, " is neither a confederacy of domestic units nor an aggregation of individuals, but an organization in the full force of the term — it is a corporation, an economic body politic, whose constituent members are not so much severally bound, as jointly united in a common cause. The permanent productive clan is, in short, the first form of the state." 1

The first stage of development of the clan economy occurred in the Plain environment. In this region, the buffalo supplied all the prime necessaries of existence. The wandering habits of the animal and its gregarious tendencies taken together with the nature of its habitat had a distinct effect upon the economy of the human beings who depended upon it for subsistence. The buffalo hunting tribes were naturally clan economists. After the introduction of the horse had enabled tribes like the Dacotahs and Comanches to push out farther into the Plain, and to depend entirely upon the buffalo as their source of supply, the process of organization seems to have been completed. 2 Production ceased to be carried on by the family group with its mere sexual association of labor. On the contrary, the productive unit was a group outside the family and even antagonistic to it. Withdrawing from their families all the able-bodied men, it united them, under a leader with authority of life and death, in a closely organized cooperative band. Each member of the group had his part to perform in the buffalo hunt, some acted as scouts, others as a sort of police, others as simple marksmen. 3 A similarly rigid military organization existed. Just as every able-bodied man was a hunter, so also was he a warrior, likely at any time to be called by force of public opinion to join some war party, and under the leadership of a war chief to cooperate with others in the defense of the hunting grounds or in the preservation of their prestige among their neighbors. To this hunting and warring republican clan, the women of the group formed a sort of subsidiary and unorganized set of assistants. The means of subsistence once procured by the men's clan, the women prepared it for use. They cut up the meat, and prepared the skins for use as clothing and

1 " Inst, of Soc," Internal Mo., I, p. 395.

2 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 207-208; IV, 60. Margry, VI, 444-445-

Perrot, pp. 60-64.

3 Dodge, " The Plains of the Great West," pp. 263-266.

INTRODUCTION. 9

tent coverings. 1 Besides doing this work, they gathered roots, and in some cases cultivated a little maize. Their labor, however, was not of the sort that either requires or encourages cooperation : hence they worked individually, without any particular organization among themselves, each producing as the servant of some member of the men's clan ; in short, an organized band of men formed the typical production group of the Plains tribes. It controlled the access to the source of supply, and directed the labor of the women. Though the consumption group was still the family, the unit of distribution was the clan. In the latter, each member received a share of the animals killed in the hunt, the actual slayers receiving some special portion as a mark of their prowess. 1

The sociological effects of the republican clan economy are evident, in the first place, in the family. Paternal authority was supreme in the lodge. Wife and children belonged absolutely to the husband and father, and all purely family affairs were regulated by him, without reference to any outside organization. 3 Men who could procure several wives did so, since they were useful as laborers and child-bearers. Sons were valued as adding to the wealth of the family while they remained unmarried, and as always increasing the influence of the father. Daughters, on the other hand, were regarded merely as articles to be sold to the highest bidder. In all this, conditions did not differ greatly from those prevalent in the domestic and village economies.

Politically, however, there arose a new state of affairs. The state was now identical with the male clan — the latter controlling the sources of the surplus, and so possessing sovereign power in political life. To the women belonged no shadow of sovereignty. Speaking of the Comanches, Schoolcraft says, " Females have no voice or even influence in their councils,"* and are " held in small

Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 236; II, 132.

2 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes/' II, 185.

3 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," II, 131-132 — "A husband exercises unbounded authority over the person of his wife."

Bancroft, I, 509 — " Every father holds undisputed sway over his children."

4 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," II, 131.

estimation." ' Hence, from the women's point of view, the government was an absolute despotism. Within the clan, on the other hand, the purest republicanism prevailed, all good hunters and warriors having an equal share in the management of affairs. 2 The chieftanship was given to the ablest and most experienced hunter, especially if he had a large number of blood relations to support his claims. He exercised governmental powers, however, only as the representative of the sovereign body of hunters and warriors, and with their advice and consent. All decisions of importance were made by the clan council, the voice of the majority prevailing.

In the Desert-Oasis environment, south of the Colorado River the clan principle manifested itself in a still more developed form. The inhabitants of this region depended for subsistence mainly upon maize culture. In this industry women were the pioneers. Hence in the course of time they formed a productive association of their own which, in certain circumstances, came to compete with the men's hunting and war clan, and gained the first place in the economic life of the community. Eventually, when conditions required, as among the Pueblo Indians, the men also took up agriculture ; and the two clans united in one body. This communal clan, composed of both men and women, was the form of organization characteristic of the primitive agricultural settlements of the southwest. The distribution group was now the communal clan, though the family still continued to be the unit of consumption. The family, however, showed the effect of economic antecedents in the reduced authority of the father and the correspondingly increased influence of the mother. The wife rather than the husband was now regarded as the head of the family. The state, too, showed the influence of the changed methods of production. Sovereignty resided in the body of cooperating producers that controlled the sources of the surplus ; i. e. in the communal clan. Women became sharers in the possession of sovereign power. Government was carried on by purely

1 Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 235. 2 Ibid., V, 687; II, 130.

INTRODUCTION. I I

democratic methods, all having a voice in the management of affairs. Age and experience and consequent knowledge of climatic conditions affecting agricultural operations were the qualifications sought for in those who were chosen governors of the community.

The Plains and the Oases of the Desert presented, perhaps, the clearest examples of each form of clan economy when isolated and complete in its development. The Eastern Forest environment, however, affords the student the best opportunity to observe the slow growth of the cooperative principle. Within its limits, from north to south, were economies in every stage of development. In the cold and thickly wooded section about the St. Lawrence River, where the food supply was comparatively scarce and irregular, the domestic economy prevailed for the greater part of the year. Congregation occurred in spots where food was temporarily abundant, but when the season was over each family wandered off by itself, to carry on its food-quest as best it might. The Quebec Indians, for instance, were " wanderers . . . during the six winter months — roving here and there according as they might find game, two or three families erecting their cabins together in one place, two or three in another, and so on." 1 In times of famine, " they play, so to speak, at ' save himself who can ' — deserting each other and abandoning all interest in the common welfare, each one strives to find something for himself. Then the children, women, and for that matter all those who cannot hunt, die of cold and hunger." 2 Thus in times of comparative plenty the village system might appear for a season, while in times of great scarcity the food-quest became a purely individual matter. In general, however, the economy characteristic of the northern portion of the Eastern Forest environment was domestic. In the warmer climate and more favorable conditions of the central portion, the principles of association and cooperation began to operate. Here two clans — the men's and