Head Of The Longhouse

As Clanmothers, you will always have Good Minds. You will always carry Good Minds and you will always look up to other Clanmothers of other nations; you will always be equal. All the Clanmothers are equal. Nobody has more power, no matter what nation. And same way with all the Chiefs you elevated; nobody will ever have any more power. They are all equal. The Chief cannot tell another Chief what to do because he has a Clanmother. That is the role of the Clanmothers. If a chief dies, then it is her place to nominate another Chief and it must go through a ceremony they call a condolence ceremony. That will be her responsibility.

A Clanmother's responsibility is also looking after her family and tell them about the family system, the structure; how it is structured from her own matrilineal family. Also to educate her own nation, her own clan about what is Appreciation, Respect and Love . That is up to the Clanmother for all her family, to make sure they live up to the Great Law. She will be made what we call head of the Longhouse, of her own family. All the family will look up to the Clanmother because she is the one who gives the instructions of her longhouse .

Responsibility For Counseling

They have two relations. One, the matrilineal blood line and also the father's side. They have to respect the father's side too. So you have both sides who can talk to you if you need counseling but under the supervision of the Clanmother. She would say, you need counseling. You go to your grandfather, or your uncle, or to your grandmother. So everybody tells you the same thing so you cannot run to anybody else for somebody to defend you. So you are actually monitored as you grow up. You got everybody to look up to and everybody owns you. They didn't disown you.

So this was the responsibility of the Clanmother. Even marriages that was her responsibility to bring the man and the woman together. They are the ones that says when the daughter was ready to marry. When they came together at that time, there were no papers to sign, no ring to put on. So if they couldn't get along, they could just separate because there is nothing really binding them. This was the responsibility of the Clanmother too, to see that marriage goes. She is always giving them counseling; it is the same way with the family he comes from. He is given counseling too about how to look after his children, how to look after his wife. That is why we never had no problem about violence because you had so many people to look up to but now we don't even listen to our own people. We had our own counseling system in our own families. You felt happy because everybody owns you. Everybody wants you.

Upbringing Of Children

She also taught the children things they should know about their culture and their lineage; how they should give thanks at certain times, what they call spirituality. They tell them about the times when you are supposed to give thanks the first time you eat something like strawberries, or maple sap. You give thanks to the Creator or maybe to the Mother Earth. And all the way through - corn, beans, and squash. You are to give thanks and it was up to the Clanmother to tell the children so they learn, and also about Respect. Respect nature and everything. So this was the duty of the Clanmother.

Giving Names

And also, when the children are born, she is responsible for the names - what they call given names. She is responsible to give the child a name when they are born. And when she makes a Chief, he also has a special name that he will follow during the time when he is sitting in Council, a chieftain's name. So the Clanmother's responsibility is to remember all those names for many generations to come. So it is given by Clanmothers of all Nations, the different Clans. Everyone of those clans have their own names. There are no duplicates of Native names in any Nation. They all have different names. Women never followed the husband's name. She always had her own name. The children always had their own name. They never followed the last name of the father. You could never, ever get another name. A man can get two names if he is made a chief. That comes from the Clanmother.

The Chief Is Her Helper

When she made the Chief, that was her helper. The Chief would help the Clanmother to keep Peace in the Family. The Chief's role is to keep the people together and encourage them. To give courage to all people, to have your language and your culture - that is the kind of encouragement you get from your own Clanmother. And if you don't behave, your Clanmother is always the one to talk to you first.

So the Clanmother's role is looking into all in her own Clan and Nation, that everybody is at Peace. And also to educate the younger people from the time they are young: What is a Clanmother's role? What is a man's role? What is a Chief's role? What is a young girl's role? Everybody had their own role.