ABSTRACT
Tribal government was governing in New Zealand before the Pakeha (European) arrived, before Columbus supposedly discovered America in 1492 and before the great ‘British Empire’ colonized much of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The purpose of this paper is to examine the strength of the tribe in New Zealand by examining the strategies used by governments since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 to maximize the pursuit of individual wealth and power. Prior to colonization, a united nation did not emerge because the tribes fought, traded, built alliances, possessed their own leaders and governed their own geographic areas to maintain and sustain their individual economic, political and social organizations. Whereas tribal government did not parallel the legal, rational bureaucratic model of Europe, distinct tribal governments did exist.
