More on indian government

We always have had government, just a government built on consensus rather then a top down European or Asian model. It was a bottom up model with the chief serving to carry out and enforce what the people decided instead of the other way around. It also called for service by everyone, thus the concept of the giveaway. You gave away your excess to someone else. We always had division of labor, and the idea that the tribe supported the chief, the medicine person and the elders/teachers. Though in truth the chief or medicine person usually gave away most of what was given to him/her. Though the idea of money was carried in the wampum which was used as a convenient method of trade both within the tribe and between tribes. So do not romanticize the people or give them greater credit then they are due. Because the people were so interdependent banishment from one tribe for infractions meant starving to death because if one tribe banished you others would not welcome you. While their were exceptions, mainly the men hunted and fished and the women grew crops or harvested wild foods though that was not always true.