How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy

[G_j]

https://www.pbs.org/native-america/blogs/native-voices/how-the-iroquois-great-law-of-peace-shaped-us-democracy/

Much has been said about the inspiration of the ancient Iroquois “Great League of Peace” in planting the seeds that led to the formation of the United States of America and its representative democracy.

The Iroquois Confederacy, founded by the Great Peacemaker in 11421, is the oldest living participatory democracy on earth2. In 1988, the U.S. Senate paid tribute with a resolution3 that said, "The confederation of the original 13 colonies into one republic was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy, as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the constitution itself."

The peoples of the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Six Nations, refer to themselves as the Haudenosaunee, (pronounced "hoo-dee-noh-SHAW-nee". It means “peoples of the longhouse,” and refers to their lengthy bark-covered longhouses that housed many families. Theirs was a sophisticated and thriving society of well over 5,000 people when the first European explorers encountered them in the early seventeenth century.

The Iroquois Confederacy originally consisted of five separate nations – the Mohawks, who call themselves Kanienkehaka, or "people of the flint country,” the Onondaga, “people of the hills,” the Cayuga, “where they land the boats,” the Oneida, “people of the standing stone,” and the Seneca, “thepeople of the big hill” living in the northeast region of North America. The Tuscarora nation, “people of the shirt,” migrated into Iroquois country in 1722.

..more..

[LakeArenal]

1. This is a great post. Thanks.

[appalachiablue]

2. Very interesting, didn't know about the series. Thanks for posting.

[Bucky]

3. The Haudenosaunee have a fascinating history

They successfully play the English against the French for many years, and use their influence what's the English typically dominate their Indian neighbors to the West.

There's also another tribe of Haudenosaunee called the Mingo, who were a mashup of several tribes and establish themselves in today's West Virginia and western Pennsylvania area who were organized to impose Iroquois control over the fur trade.

Their influence on the US Constitution is often exaggerated. Benjamin Franklin said he admired and drew from their example in 1754 with his proposal to unite the English colonies against French invasion, but there is no mention of their Great League of Peace law in the Constitutional debates or the ratification conventions.