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= Royaner = The term royaner (plural form: rotiyaneson ; meaning: "caretakers of peace" ), comes from the root word ioánere (meaning nice or good). It designates, among the six nations that make up the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the male leaders of a clan that were chosen by their respective clan mother to politically represent their clan at the confederacy level with the explicit goal to maintain the peace. While the title of royaner belongs to the clan mother who installed him in the position, the responsibility is a lifelong commitment that engages male leaders to best lead their nation through honesty, reliability, and clear headedness, and with knowledge of confederacy laws and values. With the clan mothers, the royaner form the hereditary leadership that distinguishes itself from the elected Band Council imposed by the settler State.

The term royaner has a variety of different spellings, including (but not limited to): hoyaneh, royaa'nehr , hoyaa'neh , yaa'nehr , royanni

In published historical accounts, the title of royaner has often been translated into English as chief, lord or sachem. However, many Haudenosaunee have expressed that those terms are not appropriate as they relay the wrong spirit of the role. Indeed, royaner is meant to designate a humble leader who is generous materially, psychologically, spiritually and politically, which the English terms are not able to convey.

The origins of the role
The origins of the royaner role are rooted in the Great Law of Peace (Kainere'ko:wa), which is both an oral political constitution and a founding moment of the Haudenosaunee confederacy. This political tradition was rooted in a deep desire and need for peace after the Time of the Troubled Nations, which was a time of great violence and war-making among Iroquois nations. The fifty men that accepted the Peacemaker's teachings and made the original Five Nation Confederacy possible, became the peacekeeping leaders that were entrusted with the confederacy's political and social wellbeing. Later, in 1722, the Tuscarora people also joined the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which became known as the Six Nation Confederacy. The Tuscarora do have hereditary leaders in the confederacy, but they are not included in the original 50 rotiyaneson.

The 50 rotiyaneson that exist today are the same, in name and in spirit, than the 50 first leaders that were entrusted with the vital responsibility of peacekeeping. The idea is that the 50 people who created the confederacy are consistently requickened, as to never die and symbolically upkeep the Great Law of Peace forever. After the death of a Royaner, the son chosen by a Clan Mother who holds a Royaner title would take the role of the deceased, as well as their name and title. The cycle continues as to make sure that someone will always fill the role of a Royaner. Requickening, in its simplest expression, is the action of overcoming death through a ceremony prescribed by the peacemaker, in which the name and the spirit of the dead will be given to someone else, for the void left by the deceased to be filled. This form of grieving and mourning is engraved in the identity of the Haudenosaunee and is therefore also represented at the leadership level of the Confederacy.

Politically, the rotiyaneson effectively work as the federal level of government for the Haudenosaunee confederacy (as they represent nations) while Clan Mothers work at a local level of government, and they represent clans. It is important to note that the rotiyaneson are in no way hierarchically superior to the Clan Mothers because they lead on a larger scale. Indeed, the Haudenosaunee confederacy is known for its horizontal structures of government that prone a balance of gender roles, where no top-down or vertical structures are present and consensus is prioritized over coercion, effectively being the opposite of Western habits of governance. The Clan Mothers and the rotiyaneson are known for their circular and reciprocal form of governance, where most topics will be discussed between both forms of hereditary leadership as both point of views hold the same value. Some even argue that since Clan mothers have the power to dismiss - symbolically remove the antlers, after three strikes - a Royaner who is not honouring his role, they effectively have more power than the rotiyaneson do.

Navigating colonialism with the Royaner system
While the earlier settlers in North America may have been interested in forming alliances and bonds with First Nations peoples, the progression of empires and the subsequent creation of a settler State shifted the dynamic between Indigenous peoples and settlers tremendously. Thus, while the British Empire had once sought to recognize nations and their traditions, their growing wish for territorial expansion made them more prone to disregard First Nations' right to traditional land, culture and political structures. This new trend only gained importance and macabre meaning with the creation of the official settler State of Canada, which eventually sought to eliminate First Nation identity altogether.

Joseph Brant
Joseph Brant was a Mohawk man who was recognised as a military and political leader by the British Empire. However, he was not a Royaner and therefore was not recognised within Haudenosaunee nation as a rightful and legitimate leader. Nevertheless, when the Mohawk valley was forfeited by the British to the Americans in the Treaty of Paris, and the nation had to relocate, the British approached Joseph Brant to help in finding a suitable new homeland that would replace the lands lost in the war. The Confederacy hereditary leadership (the clan mothers and rotiyaneson), knowing that Brant was recognized by the Crown as one of their leaders and had standing in the British military, good English language skills and personal connections to the British leadership, allowed him to represent the nation in the negotiations as they felt that he had the most advantageous position to secure a more just compensation. It is important to note that, contrary to many historical representations of Joseph Brant as a "Mohawk tribal chief", he was never given authority to act on behalf of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Instead, he simply served as a spokesman for the Confederacy council in the selection of the new Haudenosaunee homeland at the Grand River tract. This case helps to understand how the Haudenosaunee system of hereditary governance were able to negotiate their place in a rapidly changing world to maintain their power and responsibilities among the Confederacy.

Elizabeth Brant
Elizabeth Brant was Joseph Brant's daughter, but was also, more importantly, the daughter of Catharine Brant, the Clan Mother responsible for nominating the leading Royaner of the Mohawk (Tehkarihoken). As such, when her mother passed away in 1837, she inherited the leadership role of Clan Mother and became responsible for nominating the new Tehkarihoken. However, as the British became more and more disinterested in traditional leadership structures and instead turned to patriarchal structures of power, the role of clan mothers was becoming less and less recognized. This growing disregard for the matrilineal hereditary line of leadership pushed Elizabeth Brant to petition the British court in 1844 to have her rights as a clan mother and the rights of her sons as potential future rotiyaneson recognized. This petition was successful and solidified the Royaner system of governance as a legitimate self-governing body of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy until 1924. This case helps us understand how the legitimacy Elizabeth had in her family as a clan mother and in the eyes of the British Empire as the daughter of Joseph Brant helped her to secure the protection of the Clan Mother and Royaner system of self-governance for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

Alas, in 1924, the government of Canada enacted an amendment to the Indian Act, which imposed an elected council structure as the only recognized form of Indigenous leadership among First Nations. Like many previous provisions of the act, this had the purpose of delegitimizing traditional Haudenosaunee leadership and to ultimately erase Indigenous nationhood and identity. However, this did not stop hereditary leaders from pushing back against the imposition of elected non-legitimate leadership through the preservation of the traditional system of leadership. Interestingly enough, while the patriarchal structures of power would have disproportionately advantaged the male hereditary leaders, the rotiyaneson were often the first to push back against the patriarchy to have their clan mothers recognized as legitimate leaders. This demonstrates the importance placed on horizontal leadership structures in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that are founded on circular and reciprocal forms of governance that help to maintain a balance between genders.

Contemporary context
It is important to note that these systems have perseverated through time and pressure and still exist today. Hereditary forms of leadership still have authority within the Six Nations of the Confederacy to serve in their traditional role of peacekeeping, despite the Canadian government imposing the elected Band Council. A few examples of this leadership system in action in recent years are