ABSTRACT
As the English colonists arrived and settled at places along the Atlantic Coast that they named James Town and Plymouth Rock, they encountered Algonquian-speaking peoples with customs previously unknown to them. In spite of having no persons of authority governing their lives, these people seemed to have some type of order in their societies. Unlike in England, where leaders inherited the right to rule, here leaders were chosen from within the society and could easily be removed if they didn’t do the will of the people. An example is the Lenapé who inhabited the area of what is now New Jersey: “A chief dare not venture, compel, or punish anyone as in that case he would immediately be forsaken by the whole tribe. The chief must endeavor to rule over his people by calm reasoning and friendly exhortations” (Newell 1965: 21).
