-Caveat Lector-
In a message dated 98-12-22 12:18:44 EST, William Hugh Tunstall writes:
<< As far as "native populations" go, since I'm Native American, I find it
odd that European Americans assume that we needed YOU to give us our
rights to begin with. How glorious!!!! The land was initially ours...we
had our own religion...our own concepts of political and property
rights...(read of the Iroquois Confederacy for its influence on the
Constitution you esteem). >>
<A HREF="http://www.jmu.edu/polisci/madison/Iroquois.htm">Iroquois Federation
</A> http://www.jmu.edu/polisci/madison/Iroquois.htm
<<The choice is vulnerable to the accusation that historical accuracy has been
sacrificed since there is little evidence that the founding fathers ever read
the Haudenosaunee Constitution. [For a discussion of this controversy see Jean
Bethke Elshtain, review of We are All Multiculturalists Now, by Nathan Glazer,
In Civnet: Journal for a Civil Society, May 1997.]
It would be hard to claim that the founders scrutinized the Iroquois
Constitution with the same avidity they studied the works of, say, Hume or
Locke. [For a description of Madison's studies at Princeton, see the Princeton
site. For a discussion of Madison's extensive preparation for the
Constitutional Convention, see Bruce G. Kauffmann, "James Madison --
'Godfather' of the Constitution?" The Early American Review, Summer 1996.] The
founders were white males of European descent and their concept of erudition
was decidedly Eurocentric. However, the founders were not simply scholars;
they were, as Charles Beard asserted, rich "in political experience, and in
practical knowledge." Many had met, fought, negotiated, and traded with the
Six Nations and other Native Americans for much of their lives.
It seems unlikely that the founders could be totally blind to the lessons to
be learned from the successes and failures of the Six Nations. Could they have
been blind to the parallels between the fate of six small Indian Nations faced
with a larger foe and the future of thirteen small states confronting major
European powers?
Much earlier, Benjamin Franklin, who did attend the Constitutional Convention,
saw the parallel:
"It would be a strange thing if Six Nations of ignorant savages should be
capable of forming such a scheme for such an union, and be able to execute it
such a manner as that it has subsisted ages appears indissoluble; and yet that
a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies, to
whom it is more necessary and must be more advantageous, and who cannot be
supposed to want an equal understanding of their interests." Quoted in Van
Doren, page 209.
The declining fortunes of the Six Nations must have reinforced the founders'
fears of the consequences of disunity and their desires to move away from a
confederacy. >>
The Iroquois Confederation may or may not have influenced the writers of
our Constitution. The six tribes divided and most of the Confederation chose
to fight along with the British. The fact that they dissolved their alliance
and fought against the colonists may have provided an influence although it
may not have been a positive one. Still it is an interesting thought.
Regards,
Bob Stokes
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