Who or what determined a man's standing in the American Indian tribe?

Answer 1

Every tribe was different and it is completely wrong to think that all native American peoples had the same concept of a man's standing.

Among the Plains tribes specifically, a man needed to have received a sacred vision provided by a reliable and helpful spirit being; there was always the possibilty that a vision was given by Trickster or some bad spirit. Without this sacred window into the spirit world a man had no hope of being viewed as important or powerful.

Even a man who did receive a medicine vision and was given a spirit protector (and a war song, a war paint design, a sacred token to wear in his hair or tied to his clothing and so on) could lose his influence as the result of bad luck - leading a war party that returned with some of its members dead and left behind would mean he lost most of his influence; failing to locate an enemy or a buffalo herd would also mean loss of standing among his people.

Beyond this spiritual standing, a man needed to accumulate the correct kind of war achievements - and always in view of others who could then confirm what took place. These coups differed from tribe to tribe and had different values.

The same principles did not apply to various other native American cultures.