sachem
IPA: sˈætʃʌm
noun
- A chief of one or several Native American tribe(s), especially of the Algonquians; a sagamore.
- (informal)
- A boss, a leader.
- (archaic) An eminent member of a group, or an eminent person in society; a sagamore.
- (politics) A high-ranking officer of the Tammany Hall political organization.
Examples of "sachem" in Sentences
- The civil head of a clan was a "sachem"; the military heads were "chiefs."
- Its official head was the "sachem," whose functions were of a civil nature.
- As the little squadron from Communipaw drew near to the shores of Manna-hata, a sachem at the head of a band of warriors appeared to oppose their landing.
- Some sachem would sadly sketch the smiling scenes of health and happiness in the days before the pale-face came to wrest from the Indians their land, the gift of the Great Spirit.
- A Seneca sachem of the highest class, he was born at the Indian village of Ga-no-wau-ges, near Avon, about the year 1735, and died at Onondaga in 1815, where he happened to be on one of his pastoral visits.
- All the while, the Wampanoag, including their "sachem," or leader, Massasoit, were observing these sickly looking visitors, frail from hunger and disease, knowing they could wipe them out with one fell swoop.
- Mr. Morgan (in his "League of the Iroquois," page 68,) states that to the last-named chief, or "sachem," the duty of watching the door was assigned, and that "they gave him a sub-sachem, or assistant, to enable him to execute this trust."
- That Algonquin word "sachem," so seldom used, so difficult of pronunciation by the Iroquois, was never employed to designate a councilor in council; there they used the title, Roy-a-neh, and to that title had I answered the belt of the Iroquois, in the name of Kayanehenh-Kowa, the Great Peace.
- Finally, this celebrated sachem, Longboard, held a secret council among the captives, and instructed them all to take arms and advance with the British Indians, and use their influence to lead them to a place where they might be captured, and they with the rest, which they successfully effected, and were re-captured by the Americans.
- "Ah! Yuagh!" called the sachem, and two young men stepped forward, toe on the line, glanced each at a framed picture, drew up an arm, and, "Whut-t-t t-e-e-p," whined two knives that flittered through the light and struck quivering, one with its cool kiss on McElroy's cheek, the other just in the edge of the slab at De Courtenay's shoulder.