Much has yet to be done in the study of these governments before safe
generalizations may be made. But enough is known to warrant the
following statement:

Tribal government in North America is based on kinship in that the
fundamental units of social organization are bodies of consanguineal
kindred either in the male or female line; these units being what has
been well denominated "gentes."

These "gentes" are organized into tribes by ties of relationship and
affinity, and this organization is of such a character that the man's
position in the tribe is fixed by his kinship. There is no place in a
tribe for any person whose kinship is not fixed, and only those
persons can be adopted into the tribe who are adopted into some family
with artificial kinship specified. The fabric of Indian society is a
complex tissue of kinship. The warp is made of streams of kinship
blood, and the woof of marriage ties.

With most tribes military and civil affairs are differentiated. The
functions of civil government are in general differentiated only to
this extent, that executive functions are performed by chiefs and
sachems, but these chiefs and sachems are also members of the council.
The council is legislature and court. Perhaps it were better to say
that the council is the court whose decisions are law, and that the
legislative body properly has not been developed.

In general, crimes are well defined. Procedure is formal, and forms
are held as of such importance that error therein is _prima facie_
evidence that the subject-matter formulated was false.