Tribal chief

A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.

"Chieftain" redirects here. For other uses, see Chieftain (disambiguation).

Tribal societies[edit]

There is no definition for "tribe".

The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia.

Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as an intermediate stage between the band society of the Paleolithic stage and civilization with centralized, super-regional government based in cities. Anthropologist Elman Service distinguishes two stages of tribal societies: simple societies organized by limited instances of social rank and prestige, and more stratified societies led by chieftains or tribal kings (chiefdoms). Stratified tribal societies led by tribal kings are thought to have flourished from the Neolithic stage into the Iron Age, albeit in competition with urban civilisations and empires beginning in the Bronze Age.

In the case of tribal societies of indigenous peoples existing within larger colonial and post-colonial states, tribal chiefs may represent their tribe or ethnicity in a form of self-government.

(mapudungun: longko, "head") among the Mapuche

Lonco

— tribal Cacique (chief) of the Tupi people

Morubixaba

Oubutu (among the Kalinago people of the southern Caribbean)

Rajiv (among the central Trinidadian people of Freeport)

Tyee, a tribal chief of the in the Pacific Northwest of the present-day United States^[2]^[3]

Chinookan peoples

a term used among the Taino Nation of the Caribbean islands, later adopted by the Spanish to refer to all heads of chiefdoms whom they encountered: Cuauhtémoc, Tecun Uman, Tenamaxtli, Atlácatl, Lempira, Nicarao (cacique), Tupac Amaru II

Cacique

term of chiefdom of the Algonquian nations of present-day New England in the United States

Sachem

Afro-Bolivian king

American professional wrestler has been using the moniker "The Tribal Chief" as part of his villainous character.^[10]

Roman Reigns

House of chiefs

Indirect rule

Opperhoofd

Petty kingdom

The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois has an exhibit on the Pawnee earth lodge.

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The Field Museum has exhibits with artifacts, dress, tools and pottery of the Pueblo people, the Northwest tribes, the Plains tribes and the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, especially those of the Midwest.