confederacy

noun

1. An alliance.
2. A state where the sovereign constituent units delegate their authority to the centre. As opposed to a federation, where the central and regional governments are each equal and sovereign in their own sphere.
3. Specifically, an instance of a decentralized governing structure among the indigenous peoples of North America.

   “The Blackfoot, Iroquois, and Sioux peoples all were governed as confederacies. There were also multi-ethnic confederacies, such as the Iron Confederacy made up of the Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Stoney, and Saulteaux.”

name

1. (historical)The Confederate States of America, the collection of American states that seceded from the United States in 1860–61, and fought against the Union in the American Civil War.

   “Christmas of 1862 had been a happy one for Atlanta, for the whole South. The Confederacy had scored a smashing victory at Fredericksburg and the Yankee dead and wounded were counted in the thousands.”