Natchez Politics, Essay Example

Native North Americans refer to indigenous Americans that formed tribes, ethnic groups, and communities that were well-organized into distinct political systems. The native Americans occupied themselves mostly with hunting and farming, while their lives and value systems differed from the  European ones, despite going through colonization and cultural conflicts caused by long-standing clashes with the foreigners and other tribes.

Before the forced revolutionary assimilation of Native Americans with the future American civilization, the Natchez, were organized into clans. The members of these clans had certain rights: the right to elect their chiefs (‘sachem’) and the right to dismiss them; a right to arrange marriages outside of the tribe, a right to inherit property from the deceased, a right to give names, a right to adopt strangers and welcome them inside the clan, a right to defend, and other rights. Moreover, they had a common burial place and a shared religion.

An established council of elders was in use.  The elders in question were the chiefs who ruled the nine villages and formed the supreme government, while in some instances, there was a head chief of the tribe. Anderson (p.89) states that the Natchez had two administrative levels, consisting of the supreme chief (Great Sun) and war chief (Tattoped Serpent), who ruled the whole tribe. These two high level officials resided in the grand village. The great chief was accountable to a panel to elders, while the war chiefs were appointed by the Great Sun. The ‘stinkards’ were the common people, who interacted with the ‘honored men’ through marriage, but still remained ‘stinkards’ (Anderson 2002).

To conclude, we can see that the Natchez political system can be labeled as authoritarian, since all officials were chosen by the great chief and the locals were not actively participating in the election process. The rules imposed on the locals also hindered them from freely associating with the governors and high classes of the tribe. The chief was the authoritarian leader, since all power rested on a single family.

Work Cited

Anderson,David. The Woodland Southeast.North Carolina.North Carolina. Divisional Archives:2002.

Ward, Trawick. Time Before History. The Unuversuty of North Carolina Press. North Carolina. 1999