522 peace presentation iroquois confederacy

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The Six Nations: Oldest Living Participatory D emocracy on Earth The people of the Six Nations, alsoknown by the French term, Iroquois Confederacy, call themselves the Hau de no sau nee (ho dee noe shonee) meaning People Building a Long House included the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, andSenecas. The sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, migrated into Iroquois country in the early eighteenth century..Their story, and governance truly based on the consent of the governed, contains a great deal of life-

promoting intelligence. The original United States represe ntativ e democracy, fashioned by such centralauthors as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, drew much inspiration from this confederacy of nations.



The eagle is the guardian bird of the Haudenosaunee,and is often seen in images as being above the Tree of Peace.



Peacemaker presents his vision. By John Kahionhes Fadden.

The Confederacy was formed by the Huron prophetD

eganawidah (called "thePeacemaker" in oral discourse), who enlisted the aid of Aiowantha (sometimes calledHiawatha) to spread his vision of a united Haudenosaunee confederacy. The oral history

attributes the Peacemaker's stuttering to a double row of teeth. The Confederacy originallyincluded the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. The sixth nation, the

Tuscaroras, migrated into Iroquois country in the early eighteenth century.



On June 11, 1776 while the question of independence was beingdebated, the visiting Iroquois chiefs were formally invited into the

meeting hall of the Continental Congress. There a speech was delivered,in which they were addressed as "Brothers" and told of the delegates'wish that the "friendship" between them would "continue as long as thesun shall shine" and the "waters run." The speech also expressed thehope that the new Americans and the Iroquois act "as one people, andhave but one heart." [18] After this speech, an Onondaga chief requested

permission to give Hancock an Indian name. The Congress graciouslyconsented, and so the president was renamed "Karanduawn, or theGreat Tree." With the Iroquois chiefs inside the halls of Congress on the

eve of American Independence, the impact of Iroquois ideas on thefounders is unmistakable. History is indebted to Charles Thomson, anadopted D elaware, whose knowledge of and respect for AmericanIndians is reflected in the attention that he gave to this ceremony in therecords of the Continental Congress. [19] Artwork by John Kahionhes

Fadden.



The Six Nations: Oldest Living Participatory D emocracy on EarthThe Tree of Peace

by Joh n Kah i onhes Fadde n

http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/#AB



Think not of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation.Think of continuing generations of our families,

think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn,whose faces are coming from beneath the ground."

The Peacemakers of the Haudenosaunee



Adams' D efence was a critical survey of world governmentsand he included a description of the Iroquois and other NativeAmerican government in his analysis. In his preface, Adamsmentioned the Inca, Manco Capac, and the political structure"of the Peruvians." He also noted that tribes in "North Americahave certain families from which their leaders are alwayschosen." Adams believed that American Indian governments

collected their authority in one center (a simple or unicameralmodel), and he also observed that in American Indiangovernments "the people" believed that "all depended onthem."Later in the preface, John Adams observed that BenjaminFranklin, the French Ph ilo so phes and other "great philosophersand politicians of the age were "attempting to "set upgovernments of . . . modern Indians."(from Chp.10, " Kindling a New National Grand Council Fire,

Native American liberty and the U.S. Constitution ", Exemp la r o f Liber ty)



Figure 10 . "Our wise forefathers established Union and Amity between the Five Nations. This has madeus formidable; this has given us great Weight and Authority with our neighboring Nations. We are a

powerful Confederacy; and by your observing the same methods, our wise forefathers have taken, youwill acquire such Strength and power. Therefore, whatever befalls you, never fall out with one another."Canassatego, the great Iroquois chief, advising the assembled colonial governors on Iroquois concepts of unity in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1744. Artwork by John Kahionhes Fadden.(from Chp.6, " The White Roots Reach Out ", Exemp la r o f Liber ty)



Haudenosaunee Council

This panel depicts a Chief (one of nine) of the Mohawk Nation Council addressing chiefs andclanmothers of the Seneca Nation. Both nations are part of the Haudenosaunee (Six Iroquois NationsConfederacy), which also includes the Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora Nations. Thisconfederation, created many centuries ago was given authority by an orally transmitted constitutioncalled, Kaianerekowa (The Great Law of Peace). In that this confederacy exists to this day, it is theoldest constituted participatory democracy in the world. W ithin its framework are liberty, freedom, &

justice; representation begins at the smallest denominator, the individual, and flows outward through family, clanand nation.



In 1775, treaty commissioners at Albany recall thewords of Canassatego. By John Kahionhes Fadden.

(from Chp.8, " A New Chapter, Images of nativeAmerica in the writings

of Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine ", Exemp la r o f Liber ty)



The use of Indian women to provide anexemplar of feminist liberty continued intothe nineteenth century. On May 16, 1914,only six years before the first nationalelection in which women had the vote,

Pu ck printed a line drawing of a group of Indian women observing Susan B.Anthony, Anne Howard Shaw andElizabeth Cady Stanton leading a parade of women. A verse under the print read:

"Savagery to Civilization"We, the women of the Iroquois

Own the Land, the Lodge, the ChildrenOurs is the right to adoption, life or death;

Ours is the right to raise up and depose chiefs;Ours is the right to representation in all

councils;Ours is the right to make and abrogate treaties;

Ours is the supervision over domestic andforeign policies;

Ours is the trusteeship of tribal property;Our lives are valued again as high as man's.

522 peace presentation iroquois confederacy

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