The Anarchist Inclinations of North American Great Plains Tribes
In my research I have found that some sort of Anarchy was the common practice of the Great Plain Natives, though perhaps of a more collectivist nature rather than communist. Here Anarchy is to be understood as a society with a lack of a State, and a State is to be understood as a system of hierarchical authority that has the monopolized professional form of violence in order to sustain, maintain, and expand its power and territory.
My main source for this claim comes from Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer, which is Wooden Leg’s, a Northern Cheyenne born in 1858, account of his life as written down by Thomas B. Marquis and it is often referenced or supplemented by the latter with other first hand accounts and documentation regarding particular events for clarification. However, in the book, neither the words “Anarchy” or “Socialism” nor any earnest attempt to counterpose the Cheyenne way of life to the modern capitalist society of class struggle is made so I will now extensively quote Wooden Leg and contrast it with writings of Anarchists as well as my own analysis to support this claim:
He was a Northern Cheyenne who belonged to the Elk Warrior society of his tribe, one such society of three. The other two being the Crazy Dog Warriors and the Fox Warriors. To apply the universality of the Cheyenne way of life to other Great Plains Natives; Wooden Leg states that “[t]he Sioux tribes had ways closely resembling those of the Cheyennes. We traveled and visited much with them, particularly with the Ogallalas, sometimes with the Minneconjoux”. He goes on to say that “[t]he Sioux tribal governments were almost the same as ours…Their warrior training by precept and by discipline was similar to our system. They fought their battles as a band of individuals, the same as we fought ours, and the same as was the way of all Indians I ever knew. They had war dances and medicine dances differing only a little from our ceremonies of this kind. So when white people learn the ways of the Cheyennes they have learned also a great deal of the ways of the Sioux and of other Indians in this part of the world.” p 121-122
Ok, now on to the Juicy Stuff™:
