> 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 > (Akunehsyeni[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.
Thanks, Ron. Here's another view: The Iroquois Confederation Constitution: An Analysis Donald S. Lutz University of Houston The Iroquois Confederation was not an influence on the U.S. Constitution, but it is worthy of study as an independently developed political system with the oldest surviving constitution in North America. A systematic institutional analysis of the Great Binding Law, the orally transmitted constitution of the Confederation, reveals, among other things: tribal inequality despite their formal equality under a unanimity rule; a high level of responsiveness despite a nondemocratic, elitist method for selecting leaders; many ancillary institutions for achieving a traditional form of consensus rather than simple majority rule; two means of elevating men to the Confederation Council, each a paradoxical blend of the pre political and the post-traditional; the first use of a formal amendment process in constitutional history; and an underlying "code of imperialism" that, together with the second method of selecting Confederation Council members, transformed a defensive alliance into a potent actor in North American history. Overall, the Confederation institutionally approximated an Aristotelian "mixed regime" which, despite its creation under circumstances the Iroquois describe in Hobbesian terms, was quite libertarian. 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/
