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Native Brazilian chiefs.

A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single (or dual) leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.

In the case of indigenous tribal societies existing within larger colonial and post-colonial states, tribal chiefs may represent their tribe or ethnicity in a form of self-government.

The most common types are the chairman of a council (usually of "elders") 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 (in "theocratic" cultures).

The term is usually distinct from chiefs at still lower levels, such as village headman (geographically defined) or clan chief (an essentially genealogical notion), as the notion "tribal" rather requires an ethno-cultural identity (racial, linguistic, religious etc.) as well as some political (representative, legislative, executive and/or judicial) expression.

History[link]

Anthropologist Elman Service distinguishes two stages of tribal societies: simple societies organised by limited instances of social rank and prestige, and more stratified societies led by chieftains or tribal kings (chiefdoms). Historically, tribal societies represent an intermediate stage between the band society of the Paleolithic stage and the Civilization with centralized, super-regional government based in cities. Stratified tribal societies led by tribal kings thus flourished from the Neolithic stage into the Iron Age, albeit in competition with civilisations and empires beginning in the Bronze Age. An important source of information for tribal societies of the Iron Age is Greco-Roman ethnography, which describes tribal societies surrounding the urban, imperialist civilisation of the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, tribal kingdoms were again established over much of Europe in the wake of the Migration period. By the High Middle Ages, these had again coalesced into super-regional monarchies.

Tribal societies also remained prevalent in much of the New World, excepting Paleolithic or Mesolithic band societies in Oceania and in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Europeans forced centralized governments onto these societies during Colonialism, but in some instances they have retained or regained partial self-government.

Specific tribal chiefdoms[link]

Americas[link]

• lonco (mapudungun: longko, "head") among the Mapuche
• Morubixaba — tribal Cacique (chief) of the Tupi people
• Oubutu (among the Kalinago people of the the southern Caribbean)
• Rajiv (among the central Trinidadian people of Freeport)
• Tyee tribal chief of the Chinookan (Chinook)^[1][2]

Sub-Saharan Africa[link]

• Eze (Ibo people of Nigeria)
• Gbong Gwon Jos (of the Berom people of Nigeria)
• Kgosi (amongst the Tswana people of Botswana and South Africa, with the House of Khama being its most powerful holders)
• Mogho Naba (in the Ouagadougou region of Burkina Faso)
• Nkosi (Zulu, Ndebele and Xhosa peoples, South Africa and Zimbabwe
• Oba (also in Nigeria, with its various Yoruba and Bini holders claiming direct descent from the deified Oduduwa. Their ministers, governors and nobles, all known in the Yoruba language as Oloyes, are the chiefs who use the word "chief" as an honourific. The Obas, when referred to in English, are variously called kings, monarchs, royal fathers and, officially, traditional rulers).
• Obai (Temne people of Sierra Leone)
• Omanhene (amongst the Akan peoples of Ghana)
• Orkoiyot (Nandi people in Kenya)
• Sarki (in the Hausaland region of Niger and Nigeria)

Oceania[link]

• Ariki, 'ariki henua
• Ibedul
• Iroijlaplap
• Matai, in the Samoan fa'amatai system
• Nahnmwarki, Lepen Palikir
• Rangatira, a chief of Māori in New Zealand
• Ratu

Philippines[link]

• Apo Rodolfo Aguilar (Kudol I) (Paramount Tribal Chieftain of the Tagbanua tribes people living in Banuang Daan and Cabugao settlements in Coron Island, Palawan, Philippines)

Modern states providing an organized form of tribal chiefships[link]

India[link]

Adivasi in Sanskrit refers to indigenous people who have been living in a place from time immemorial, Adi meaning first and vasi meaning inhabitant. These tribes have "Chiefs" and they are referred to by various names. The north eastern states of India, with a large tribal population, is a valid case study. There, tribal chiefs enjoy a lot of power and status.

Middle East[link]

Arabs, in particular peninsular Arabs and nomadic Beduins, are largely organized in tribes, many of whom have official representatives in governments. Tribal chiefs are known as Sheikhs, though this term is also sometimes applied as an honorific title to spiritual leaders of Sufism.

Oceania[link]

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.

United States[link]

Goyathlay, or Geronimo, Apache chieftain for the Chiricahua

Historical cultural differences between tribes[link]

Generally, a tribe or nation is considered to be part of an ethnic group, usually sharing cultural values. For example, the forest-dwelling Chippewa historically built dwellings from the bark of trees, as opposed to the Great Plains-dwelling tribes, who would not have access to trees, except by trade, for example for lodgepoles. Thus, the tribes of the Great Plains might typically dwell in skin-covered tipis rather than bark lodges. But some Plains tribes built their lodges of earth, as for example the Pawnee.^[1] The Pueblo people, meanwhile, built their dwellings of stone and earth.

Political power in a tribe[link]

A chief might be considered to hold 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. The Mingos, 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 McDonald, 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 need be men; Wilma Mankiller was a well-known Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Also, though the fount of power might be the chief, he or she is typically 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,^[3] 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 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 Nation has its own county Menominee County, Wisconsin with special car license plates; 87% of the county's population is therefore 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).

Economic power in a tribe[link]

Because the Nations were sovereign, with treaty rights and obligations, the Wisconsin tribes innovated Indian gaming in 1988,^[4] 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 Native 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, has paid^[5] 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 have renovated their Inn of the Mountain Gods to include gambling as well as the previous tourism, lodging, and skiing in the older Inn, as of 2005.

The Navajo nation defeated bids to open casinos in 1994, but by 2004, the Shiprock casino was a fait accompli.

See also: Economy of the Iroquois

See also[link]

• Cacique
• House of chiefs
• Indirect rule
• Opperhoofd
• Paramount Chief
• Sachem
• Sagamore (title)

Notes[link]

• ^ The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois has an exhibit on the Pawnee earth lodge.
• ^ The Field Museum has exhibits with artifacts, dress, tools and pottery of the Pueblo people, the Northwest tribes, the Plains tribes and the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, especially those of the Midwest.

References[link]

• WorldStatesmen
• List of Tribal Governments in the United States
• CorPun- passim; here Solomon Islands

External links[link]

• Death of Andamanese Tribal Chief in India

Shannon James Augare is a Democrat member of the Montana Legislature. He was elected for Senate District 8 in 2010. Previously he served the Montana House of Representatives, representing District 16 from 2007 until the end of 2010.^[1]

Representative Augare was Chairman of the Law and Justice Interim Committee, a member of the Business and Labor Standing Committee, Federal Relations, Energy, and Telecommunications Standing Committee, and Rules Standing Committee. He is a former member of the National Community Tax Coalition; Representative Augare also ser ves as vice-chairman of the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators.

He is a past member of the United States / Thailand Trade Negotiations taskforce and the Montana Board of Crime Control. He is currently a member of the Equal Justice Taskforce of the Montana Supreme Court.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Project Vote Smart - Representative Shannon Augare (MT) profile
• Follow the Money - Shannon Augare
  • 2008 20062002 campaign contributions

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Arjun Munda

Arjun Munda (born 5 January 1968 in Khrangajhar Jamshedpur) is an Indian politician, former Member of Parliament to the 15th Lok Sabha.^[1] He resigned the 15th Lok Sabha membership on 26 February 2011,^[2] and is currently Chief Minister of Jharkhand.

Life[link]

He is married to Meera Munda. On May 9th, 2012 a helicopter carrying Munda and his wife to Chaibasa crash landed at the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi. Although the minister was reported to have been injured, both of them survived the accident.^[3][4]

Political career[link]

His political career began in the 1980s as part of the Jharkhand movement, spearheaded by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. This movement sought to create a tribally-dominated state from the southern area of India's northern Bihar state. Munda's political clout grew due to his focus on helping tribals and other backwards. In 1995, he was elected to the Bihar state assembly, representing Kharswan. He retained that seat in 2000 and 2005 elections, but as of 2000, he was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Jharkhand was formed in 2000, with the BJP forming the first government under Babulal Marandi. Arjun Munda served as the Social Welfare Minister in his cabinet. In 2003, as the non-BJP Legislators supporting the government called for Marandi's replacement, it was Munda, viewed as a strong tribal leader, who was considered the best alternative. Munda took the position of Chief Minister on 18 March 2003 and held it until his resignation on 2 March 2005, which occurred after inconclusive state elections and the intervention of the state's governor, Syed Sibtey Razi.

Munda was reappointed Chief Minister ten days later on 12 March 2005. He won a vote of confidence in the state assembly on 15 March 2005, by a vote of 40 to 37, and thus began his second term as Chief Minister. His second term has been likewise marked by the need of support for several independent Legislators. He had to resign again on 14 September 2006 under political compulsions. Munda has served as the Chairman of: Rural Integrated Development Center (Gramya Sangrama Vikas Kendra) of Jamshedpur, the All Jharkhand Yoga Association, the Shaheed Smarak Smati of Kharswan, the Beenapari High School of Jamshedpur and the Jharkhand Deaf and Dumb Association. Arjun Munda is currently Chief Minister and national general secerartary of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

References[link]

v t e Current Chief Ministers of Indian states (list)     Andhra Pradesh: Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy Arunachal Pradesh: Nabam Tuki Assam: Tarun Gogoi Bihar: Nitish Kumar Chhattisgarh: Raman Singh Goa: Manohar Parrikar Gujarat: Narendra Modi Haryana: Bhupinder Singh Hooda Himachal Pradesh: Prem Kumar Dhumal Jammu and Kashmir: Omar Abdullah Jharkhand: Arjun Munda Karnataka: D. V. Sadananda Gowda Kerala: Oommen Chandy Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chauhan Maharashtra: Prithviraj Chavan Manipur: Okram Ibobi Singh Meghalaya: Mukul Sangma Mizoram: Pu Lalthanhawla Nagaland: Neiphiu Rio Orissa: Naveen Patnaik Punjab: Parkash Singh Badal Rajasthan: Ashok Gehlot Sikkim: Pawan Kumar Chamling Tamil Nadu: Jayalalithaa Tripura: Manik Sarkar Uttar Pradesh: Akhilesh Yadav Uttarakhand: Vijay Bahuguna West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee Delhi: Sheila Dikshit Pondicherry: N. Rangaswamy