On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 3:55 PM, ARLO J BENSINGER JR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[Platt] > Looks like they missed out on the glories of multiculturism. > > [Arlo] > How does that refute in any way Pirsig's point about the multicultural > origins > of our "self-evident truths"? Any way at all? Any way, really.... give me > one. Platt: Once again, Pirsig's observation about American Indians: "Primitive tribes such as the American Indians have no record of sweetness and cooperation with other tribes. They ambushed them, tortured them, dashed their children's brains out on rocks." Does that sound like American Indians contributed to the concepts of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?" Ron: The Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the "League of Peace and Power", the "Five Nations"; the "Six Nations"; or the "People of the Longhouse") is a group of First Nations/Native Americans that originally consisted of five nations: the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the Seneca. A sixth tribe, the Tuscarora, joined after the original five nations were formed. Although frequently referred to as the Iroquois, the Nations refer to themselves collectively as Haudenosaunee (Akunęhsyę̀niˀ[1] in Tuscarora). At the time Europeans first arrived in North America, the Confederacy was based in what is now the northeastern United States and southern Canada, including New England, upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Ontario, and Quebec. The confederacy was a union of Five Tribes, composed of common gentes, under one government on the basis of equality; each Tribe remaining independent in all manners pertaining to local self-government. It created a Great Council of Sachems, who were limited in number, equal in rank and authority, and invested with supreme powers over all matters pertaining to the Confederacy. Fifty sachemships were created and named in perpetuity in central gentes of the several tribes; with power in these gentes to fill vacancies, as often as they occurred, by election from among their respective members, and with the further power to depose from office for cause; but the right to invest these sachems with office was reserved to the General Council. The sachems of the Confederacy were also sachems in their respective tribes, and with the chiefs of these tribes formed the Council of each, which was supreme over all matters pertaining to the tribe exclusively. Unanimity in the Council of the Confederacy was made essential to every public act. In the General Council the sachems voted by tribes, which gave to each tribe a veto over the others. The Council of each tribe had power to convene the General Council; but the latter had no power to convene itself. The General Council was open to the orators of the people for the discussion of public questions; but the Council alone decided. The Confederacy had no chief executive magistrate, or official head. Experiencing the necessity for a general military commander, they created the office in a dual form, that one might neutralize the other. The two principal war-chiefs were made equal in powers. Equality between the sexes had a strong adherence in the Confederacy,[20] and the women held real power. The Grand Council of Sachems were chosen by the clan mothers, and if any leader failed to comply with the wishes of the women and the Great Law of Peace, he could be removed by the clan mothers. In 2004 the U.S. Government acknowledged the influence of the Iroquois Constitution on the U.S. Framers.[26] The Smithsonian Institution also noted the similarities between the two documents, as well as the differences. One significant difference noted was the inclusion of women in the Iroquois Constitution, one group among many that the framers of the U.S. Constitution did not include. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
