Chiefs and Councils

Chiefs and councils

• There was no single system for choosing chiefs. They were valued for their wisdom, leadership, spiritual powers, skill in battle, or hunting abilities. They were rarely chiefs for their entire life because their skills emerged and faded away.
• Chiefs were the leaders of Plains Indian society. Each tribe could have many chiefs, like a war chief, spiritual chief, or negotiation chief. White settlers found this difficult to understand, which led to problems between the US government and the Plains Indians.
• Each band had a band chief, chosen to guide the band in finding enough to eat and protecting the band from danger.
• Bamd chiefs and elders made up the tribes' councils when the tribe came together. In some tribes, the council could declare war on another tribe,or negotiate a peace treaty with other tribes.
• In…