The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-07-13
SIX NATIONS ARE
TORN BY STRIFE
Land Claims and ModernizinQ of
Constitution the Cause.
WOMEN JOIN IN The COUNCIL.

Picture IN Ind1an pOwwOw OF two
hundred years age. Eradicate the
war paint; replace the picturesque
feathers with prosaic felt and straw
hats; the cleaning tomahawks with
those more modern weapons, pens and
pencils; the torch-lit wigwam with a
two-story frame building, lamp lit;
add woman suffrage, and there Is the
setting of the council meeting of the
Six Nations of the Iroquois Confed-
eracy, just closed at the Onondaga
reservation in New York.
F~emininity has taken It's place In
the red mems councils, but with this
exception rules of procedure for the
modern council meeting Of the confed-
eracy are the anne as the ~aborigine
code that prevailed before the days
when Columbus discoYered America,
Ranking tribes Laaq ehIeffS aEe stu
given preference in the Seating ar
engagements and in order of speaking,
while the old unwrittel constitution,
handed down by word OF mouth from
generation to generation practically
intact, is still in force.
Fight over Constitution.
The council was called to iron out
differences and to hear. all sides of
the controversy between the elder
chieftains, supporting the re-establish-
ment of the c~onfederacy without
changes, called the pagan faction, and
the younger generation-called the
Christian faction-who proposed a re
vision of the constitution.
A number OF automobiles. several
license plates, were parked outside the
house when the paleface visi-
tor appeared.
The lamplit frame building was
with delegates, some having
all the way from Ontario, Can
ada, and others from the Oneida
branch in Wisconsin. Younger braves
perched around the entrance
nj at the windows, ears cooked to
catch every word voiced by the griz-
lied old chiefs.
In the same %Iroquois language In
their forefathers harangued sim
lar gatherings the chieftafns voiced
heir views of the controversy. Occa-
one of the younger braves
would start his address In English,
'nly to slide into the tongue OF his
athers when his earnestness and ex
Element got the better of him.
There was no whispering among the
delegates, and the braves applauded
5 their ancestors had by stamping
heir feet vigorously on the wooden
as some chiefs eloquence voiced
heir opinions.
Papooses were there in abundance,
in their mothers arms. Even
he red-skinned youngsters were quite
pparently appreciating tire early Iro
uois rules.
Chiefs Clad in CvcraIIs.
Tho chiefs could not be told by their
ress. Some of them. clad in overalls.
ere distinguished in rank only by the
eats they occupied and their vigorous
oquence. One old warrior spat out
'ngue-tvisting ~Iropuois for ten min J
les straight. hardly stopping to catch {
IS breath, and the little building
look with the stamping when he took
S seat. I
And at tile close fine tribesmen found f
emse!yes practically where they .
arted, as far as any settlement of !
e controversy was concerned. The 4
lgans bitterly denounced any change
the constitution, while the Chris
ms fought just as s~trenuously for
Neither won. They are resting :
their oars while the Six Nations !
ntinue to seethe and bubble with
!
Dcadlocked also is the situation on
ture steps for the collection of |
cut fyc billion dollars worth OF 4
throughout the country which
2 Indians claim they own. They
ut tire to al lands transferred by