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A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.
Classical sources of information about tribal societies are external descriptions such as from Greco-Roman ethnography, which identified societies, surrounding the societies of the ethnographers, as tribal.
States and colonialism, particularly in the last centuries, forced their central governments onto many remaining tribal societies.
In some instances tribes have retained or regained partial self-government and their lifestyles, with Indigenous peoples rights having been fought for and some being secured on state or international levels.
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* Orkoiyot (Nandi people in Kenya)
* Obong (of the Efik people, Efik people of Calabar in Southern Nigeria)
* Tor Tiv of the Tiv people, Tiv people of Central Nigeria
* Uyini (meaning 'lord') of the
Death of Andamanese Tribal Chief in IndiaList of Tribal Governments in the United States
{{Authority control Titles and offices of Native American leaders Titles of national or ethnic leadership Politics Government Heads of state Positions of authority
A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.
Tribe
The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of westernAfroeurasia
Afro-Eurasia (also Afroeurasia, Eurafrasia or the Old World) is a landmass comprising the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The terms are compound words of the names of its constituent parts. Its mainland is the largest and most populou ...
.
Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as an intermediate stage between the band society
A band society, sometimes called a camp, or in older usage, a horde, is the simplest form of human society. A band generally consists of a small kin group, no larger than an extended family or clan. The general consensus of modern anthropology ...
of the Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
stage and civilization with centralized, super-regional government based in cities. Anthropologist Elman Service
Elman Rogers Service (1915–1996) was an American cultural anthropologist.
Biography
He was born on May 18, 1915 in Tecumseh, Michigan and died on November 14, 1996 in Santa Barbara, California. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1941 from the ...
distinguishes two stages of tribal societies: simple societies organized by limited instances of social rank and prestige, and more stratified societies led by chieftains or tribal kings ( chiefdoms). Stratified tribal societies led by tribal kings are thought to have flourished from the Neolithic stage into the Iron Age, albeit in competition with urban civilisations and empires beginning in the Bronze Age.
In the case of tribal societies of indigenous peoples existing within larger colonial and post-colonial states, tribal chiefs may represent their tribe or ethnicity in a form of self-government.
Chieftain
The most common types are the chairman of a council (usually of "elder
An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority.
Elder or elders may refer to:
Positions Administrative
* Elder (administrative title), a position of authority
Cultural
* North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and tr ...
s") and/or a broader popular assembly in "parliamentary" cultures, the war chief (may be an alternative or additional post in war time), the hereditary chief, and the politically dominant medicineman
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and ceremo ...
.
The term is usually distinct from chiefs at lower levels, such as village chief
A village head, village headman or village chief is the community leader of a village or a small town.
Usage
Brunei
In Brunei, village head is called or in the Malay language. It is an administrative post which leads the community of a v ...
(geographically defined) or clan chief (an essentially genealogical notion). The descriptive "tribal" requires an ethno-cultural identity (racial, linguistic, religious etc.) as well as some political (representative, legislative, executive and/or judicial) expression. In certain situations, and especially in a colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 a ...
context, the most powerful member of either a confederation or a federation of such tribal, clan or village chiefs would be referred to as a paramount chief.
History
Classical sources of information about tribal societies are external descriptions such as from Greco-Roman ethnography, which identified societies, surrounding the societies of the ethnographers, as tribal.
States and colonialism, particularly in the last centuries, forced their central governments onto many remaining tribal societies.
In some instances tribes have retained or regained partial self-government and their lifestyles, with Indigenous peoples rights having been fought for and some being secured on state or international levels.
Terms of specific tribal chiefdoms
Americas
* '' Lonco'' (mapudungun: longko, "head") among the Mapuche * Morubixaba — tribal Cacique (chief) of theTupi people
A subdivision of the Tupi-Guarani linguistic families, the Tupi people were one of the largest groups of indigenous Brazilians before its colonization. Scholars believe that while they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, from about 2,900 ...
* Oubutu (among the Kalinago people of the southern Caribbean)
* Rajiv (among the central Trinidadian people of Freeport)
* Tyee, a tribal chief of the Chinookan peoples in the Pacific Northwest of the present-day United States
*Cacique
A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...
, a term used among the Taino Nation of the Caribbean islands
Almost all of the Caribbean islands are in the Caribbean Sea, with only a few in inland lakes. The largest island is Cuba. Other sizable islands include Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. Some of the smaller islands are re ...
, later adopted by the Spanish to refer to all heads of chiefdoms
A chiefdom is a form of hierarchical political organization in non-industrial societies usually based on kinship, and in which formal leadership is monopolized by the legitimate senior members of select families or 'houses'. These elites form a ...
whom they encountered: Cuauhtémoc, Tecun Uman, Tenamaxtli, Atlácatl
Atlácatl (Nahuatl ''Ātlācatl'': ''ātl'' "water", ''tlācatl'' "human being" – whose death is sometimes put at 1528) is reputed to have been the name of the last ruler of an indigenous state based around the city of Cuzcatlan, in the southw ...
, Lempira, Nicarao (cacique) Nicarao was said to be the name of an Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas, indigenous chieftain or cacique who presided over a territory in southwestern Nicaragua during the early 16th century. Based on research done by historians in 2002, it was dis ...
, Tupac Amaru II
Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...
* Sachem, term of chiefdom of the Algonquian nations of present-day New England in the United States
* Afro Bolivian king
Africa
* Ishe or She for male chiefs and Shekadzi for a woman ( Shona people of Zimbabwe) * Agwam ( Atyap and Bajju people of central Nigeria) *Eze
Eze (pronounced ) is an Igbo word which means King. Such words as Igwe and ''Obi'', plus others, are used by Igbo people as titles of respect and homage to the Eze. Igwe is derived from the Igbo word ''Igwekala'' or ''Eluigwekala'', "the sky or h ...
(Igbo people
The Igbo people ( , ; also spelled Ibo" and formerly also ''Iboe'', ''Ebo'', ''Eboe'',
*
*
* ''Eboans'', ''Heebo'';
natively ) are an ethnic group in Nigeria. They are primarily found in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States. A ...
of Nigeria)
* Gbong Gwom Jos (of the Berom people of Nigeria)
* Ker ( Luo people)
* Kgosi (amongst the Tswana people of Botswana and South Africa)
* Lamido
Lamido (Adlam: , pl. Lamibe ) is the Anglicisation of a term from the Fula language or Fulfulde, used to refer to a ruler. In the language it is properly ''laamiiɗo'' (, pl. ''laamiiɓe'' ), derived from the verbal root ''laamu-'' meaning "lead ...
(in the Hausaland region of Niger and Nigeria)
* Mogho Naba (in the Ouagadougou region of Burkina Faso)
* Nkosi Nkosi is a Nguni word for “king”, “chief“ and ”lord”.
”Nkosi” is a common name and surname amongst Nguni people, and may refer to:
*Nkosi Johnson (1989–2001), South African child with HIV/AIDS who made a powerful impact on public ...
(Zulu, Ndebele and Xhosa peoples, South Africa and Zimbabwe)
* Oba and Oloye">anda).html" ;"title="Oba ([panda)">Oba and Oloye (also in Nigeria, with various Yoruba people">Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...Ukelle The Ukelle people (''Ba'kelle'') make up roughly half of the population of the Yala Local Government Area in Cross River State, Nigeria . Ukelle people are a sub ethnic group belonging to the Orring people who are also found in Benue in Utonkon, ...
of Southern Nigeria
Oceania and Southeast Asia
* Aliʻi and Aliʻi nui were the chiefs and high chiefs of the islands of Hawaii Islands * Ariki, 'ariki henua * Grade-taking systems of northern Vanuatu * Ibedul * Meena means Chief of tribals in South Asia. * Iroijlaplap * Maga'låhi and maga'håga, the first-borne male and female, respectively, joint heads of aChamorro Chamorro may refer to:
* Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific
* Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas
* Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mari ...
clan, through the maternal line, of the Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...
* ''Matai'', in the Samoan '' fa'amatai'' system
* Nahnmwarki (Pohnpei
Pohnpei "upon (''pohn'') a stone altar (''pei'')" (formerly known as Ponape or Ascension, Proto-Chuukic-Pohnpeic: ''*Fawo ni pei)'' is an island of the Senyavin Islands which are part of the larger Caroline Islands group. It belongs to Pohnpei ...
), Lepen Palikir
*Pilung, a title for village, municipal and paramount chiefs and rulers of the Yap Islands
Yap ( yap, Waqaab) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micro ...
* Rangatira, a chief of Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
in New Zealand
* Ratu, Fijian Chief, Malay for Queen
* Datu, Malay and Filipino Chief
Modern states or regions providing an organized form of tribal chiefships
Arabia
Arabs, in particular peninsular Arabs, nomadic Bedouins and many Iraqis and Syrians, are largely organized in tribes, many of whom have official representatives in governments. Tribal chiefs are known assheikh
Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
s, though this term is also sometimes applied as an honorific title to spiritual leaders of Sufism.
Bolivia
TheAfro-Bolivian people
Afro-Bolivians are Bolivian people of Sub-Saharan African heritage and therefore the descriptive "Afro-Bolivian" may refer to historical or cultural elements in Bolivia thought to emanate from their community. It can also refer to the combining ...
, a recognized ethnic constituency of Bolivia, are led by a
king whose title is also recognized by the Bolivian government.
Botswana
In Botswana, the reigning kgosis of the various tribes are legally empowered to serve as advisers to the government as members of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, the national House of Chiefs. In addition to this, they also serve as the ex officio chairs of the tribal ''kgotlas'', meetings of all of the members of the tribes, where political and social matters are discussed.Canada
The band is the fundamental unit of governance among the First Nations in Canada (formerly called "Indians"). Most bands have elected chiefs, either directly elected by all members of the band, or indirectly by the band council, these chiefs are recognized by the Canadian state under the terms of theIndian Act
The ''Indian Act'' (, long name ''An Act to amend and consolidate the laws respecting Indians'') is a Canadian act of Parliament that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves. First passed in 1876 and still ...
. As well, there may be traditional hereditary or charismatic chiefs, who are usually not part of the Indian Act-sanctioned formal government. There were 614 bands in Canada in 2012. There is also a national organization, the Assembly of First Nations, which elects a "national chief" to act as spokesperson of all First Nations bands in Canada.
Ghana
The offices and traditional realms of the nanas of Ghana are constitutionally protected by the republican constitution of the country. The chiefs serve as custodians of all traditional lands and the cultures of the traditional areas. They also serve as members of the Ghanaian National House of Chiefs.Nigeria
Although both the Nigerian traditional rulers and the wider chieftaincy aren't mentioned in Nigeria's current constitution, they derive their powers from various so-called ''Chiefs laws'' and are therefore legally recognized. The traditional rulers and select chiefs usually serve as members of each federating state'sState Council of Traditional Rulers and Chiefs A state council of traditional rulers and chiefs, also known as a state council of obas in Yoruba language-majority states, refers to any Nigerian state government run body of traditional rulers and chiefs. It is usually headed by a ranking tradi ...
.
Oceania
The Solomon Islands have a Local Court Act which empowers chiefs to deal with crimes in their communities, thus assuring them of considerable effective authority.Philippines
Apo Rodolfo Aguilar (Kudol I) serves as the chieftain of theTagbanwa
The Tagbanwa people ( Tagbanwa: ) are one of the oldest ethnic groups in the Philippines, and can be mainly found in the central and northern Palawan. Research has shown that the Tagbanwa are possible descendants of the Tabon Man, thus making th ...
tribes people living in Banuang Daan and Cabugao settlements in Coron Island, Palawan, Philippines. His position is recognized by the Filipino government.
South Africa
Such figures as the king of the Zulu Nation and therain queen
Queen Modjadji, or the Rain Queen, is the hereditary queen of Balobedu, a people of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The Rain Queen is believed to have special powers, including the ability to control the clouds and rainfall.
Modjadji Ro ...
are politically recognized in South Africa because they derive their status, not only from tribal custom, but also from the Traditional Leadership Clause of the country's current constitution. Some of them are members of the National House of Traditional Leaders
The National House of Traditional Leaders is a body of 23 traditional leaders in South Africa, representing the eight provincial Houses of Traditional Leaders. Until 1998 it was called the National Council of Traditional Leaders.
Its role includes ...
.
Uganda
The pre-colonial states that existed in what is today Uganda were summarily abolished following independence from Great Britain. However, following constitutional reforms in 1993, a number of them were restored as politically neutral constituencies of the state by the government of Yoweri Museveni. Such figures as the kabaka of Buganda and theomukama of Toro The Omukama of Tooro is the name given to the king of Tooro, one of the East African kingdom of Tooro. The kingdom was founded in 1830 by Omukama Kaboyo Olimi l who was the son of Kyebambe lll Nyamutukura, the king of Bunyoro. Since that time, Too ...
typify the Ugandan chieftaincy class.
United States
Historical cultural differences between tribes
Generally, a tribe or nation is considered to be part of anethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
, usually sharing cultural value
Value or values may refer to:
Ethics and social
* Value (ethics) wherein said concept may be construed as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, associating value to them
** Values (Western philosophy) expands the notion of value beyo ...
s.
For example, the forest-dwelling Chippewa historically built dwellings from the bark of trees. On the Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
, where trees were rare, some tribes typically dwelt in skin-covered tipis, usually acquiring the lodgepoles by trade, while other Plains tribes, such as the Pawnee, built their lodges of earth. The Pueblo people of the Southwest built their dwellings of stone and earth.
Political power in a tribe
A chief might be considered to hold all political power, say by oratory or by example. But on the North American continent, it was historically possible to evade the political power of another by migration. TheMingo
The Mingo people are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, primarily Seneca and Cayuga, who migrated west from New York to the Ohio Country in the mid-18th century, and their descendants. Some Susquehannock survivors also joined them, and ...
s, for example, were Iroquois who migrated further west to the sparsely populated Ohio Country during the 18th century. Two Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, Hiawatha and the Great Peacemaker, formulated a constitution for the Iroquois Confederation.
The tribes were pacified by units of the United States Army in the nineteenth century, and were also subject to forced schooling in the decades afterward. Thus, it is uncommon for today's tribes to have a purely Native American cultural background, and today Native Americans are in many ways simply another ethnicity of the secular American people. Because formal education is now respected, some like Peter MacDonald, a Navajo, left their jobs in the mainstream U.S. economy to become chairpeople of their tribal councils or similar self-government institutions.
Not all tribal leaders are or were men. Wilma Mankiller was a well-known chief of the Cherokee Nation. Also, the chief may not free to wield power without the consent of a council of elders of some kind. For example: Cherokee men were not permitted to go to war without the consent of the council of women.
Tribal government is an official form of government in the United States, as it is in a number of countries around the world.
Historically, the U.S. government treated tribes as seats of political power, and made treaties with the tribes as legal entities. Be that as it may, the territory of these tribes fell under the authority of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
as reservations held in trust for the tribes. Citizenship was formerly considered a tribal matter. For example, it was not until 1924 that the Pueblo people were granted U.S. citizenship, and it was not until 1948 that the Puebloans were granted the right to vote in state elections in New Mexico. In Wisconsin, the Menominee has its own county Menominee County, Wisconsin with special car license plates; 87% of the county's population is Native American.
Mainstream Americans often find pride and comfort in realizing that at least part of their ethnic ancestry is Native American, although the connection is usually only sentimental and not economic or cultural. Thus, there is some political power in one's ability to claim a Native American connection (as in the Black Seminole
The Black Seminoles, or Afro-Seminoles are Native American-Africans associated with the Seminole people in Florida and Oklahoma. They are mostly blood descendants of the Seminole people, free Africans, and escaped slaves, who allied with Seminol ...
).
Economic power in a tribe
Because the Nations were sovereign, with treaty rights and obligations, the Wisconsin tribes innovatedIndian gaming Indian gaming may refer to:
*Native American gaming, gambling activities on indigenous tribal lands in the United States
*Gambling in India, gambling activities in the country of India
*Video games in India
Video gaming in India is an emerging m ...
in 1988, that is, on-reservation gambling casinos, which have since become a US$14 billion industry nationwide. This has been imitated in many of the respective states that still have indigenous American tribes. The money that this generates has engendered some political scandal. For example, the Tigua tribe, which fled their ancestral lands in New Mexico during the Pueblo revolt of 1680, and who then settled on land in El Paso County, Texas
El Paso County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 865,657, making it the ninth-most populous county in the state of Texas. Its seat is the city of El Paso, the sixth-most populous ...
, has paid for a low probable return to the tribe because of the Jack Abramoff publicity.
Many of the tribes use professional management for their money. Thus, the Mescalero Apache renovated their Inn of the Mountain Gods to include gambling as well as the previous tourism, lodging, and skiing in the older Inn.
The Navajo nation defeated bids to open casinos in 1994, but by 2004 the Shiprock casino was a ''fait accompli
Many words in the English vocabulary are of French origin, most coming from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern Engli ...
''.
See also
*Cacique
A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...
* House of chiefs
* Indirect rule
* Opperhoofd
* Petty kingdom
* Sachem
* Sagamore (title)
* Roman Reigns
Notes
* TheField Museum
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
in Chicago, Illinois has an exhibit on the Pawnee earth lodge.
* The Field Museum
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
has exhibits with artifacts, dress, tools and pottery of the Pueblo people, the Northwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
tribes, the Plains tribes and the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, especially those of the Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
.
References
External links
Death of Andamanese Tribal Chief in India
{{Authority control Titles and offices of Native American leaders Titles of national or ethnic leadership Politics Government Heads of state Positions of authority