Sioux Indian Council, Chiefs in Profound Deliberation

“These people have no written laws, nor others, save the penalties affixed to certain crimes, by long-standing custom, or by the decisions of the chiefs in council, who form a sort of Court and Congress too, for the investigation of crimes, and transaction of the public business.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 58, 1841; reprint 1973)