the six nations-the oldest democracy

8/9/2019 The Six Nations-The Oldest Democracy

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The Six Nations:

OldestLivingParticipatory Democracy on Earth

The Tree of Peaceby John Kahionhes Fadden

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

The people of the Six Nations, also known by the French term, Iroquois [1] Confederacy,call themselves the Hau de no sau nee (ho dee noe sho nee) meaning People Building a

Long House. Located in the northeastern region of North America, originally the Six

Nations was five and included the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and

Senecas. The sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, migrated into Iroquois country in the earlyeighteenth century. Together these peoples comprise the oldest livingparticipatory

democracy on earth. Their story, and governance truly based on the consent of the

governed, contains a great deal of life-promoting intelligence for those of us not familiar

with this area of American history. The original United States representative democracy,

fashioned by such central authors as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, drewmuch inspiration from this confederacy of nations. In our present day, we can benefit

immensely, in our quest to establish anew a government truly dedicated to alllife's

liberty and happiness much as has been practiced by the Six Nations for over 800

hundred years. [2]

Credits
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Figure 31. On June 11, 1776 while the question of independence was beingdebated, the visiting Iroquois chiefs were formally invited into the meeting hall of theContinental Congress. There a speech was delivered, in which they were addressedas "Brothers" and told of the delegates' wish that the "friendship" between themwould "continue as long as the sun shall shine" and the "waters run." The speechalso expressed the hope that the new Americans and the Iroquois act "as onepeople, and have but one heart."[18] After this speech, an Onondaga chief requestedpermission to give Hancock an Indian name. The Congress graciously consented,and so the president was renamed "Karanduawn, or the Great Tree." With theIroquois chiefs inside the halls of Congress on the eve of American Independence,the impact of Iroquois ideas on the founders is unmistakable. History is indebted toCharles Thomson, an adopted Delaware, whose knowledge of and respect forAmerican Indians is reflected in the attention that he gave to this ceremony in therecords of the Continental Congress.[19] Artwork by John Kahionhes Fadden.

from Exemplar of Liberty, Native America and the Evolution of Democracy,Chp.8, "A New Chapter, Images of native America in the writings of Franklin, Jefferson, and

Paine"

Contents

1. Beaver Full Moon, 24 November 1996: Inauguration ofSix Nations subtree

2. A Basic Call to Consciousness,

The Hau de no sau nee Address to the Western World,Geneva, Switzerland, Autumn 1977
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3. Forgotten Founders, Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois

and the Rationale for the American Revolution, complete 1982 book

4. Oren Lyons Interview - Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan,

Onondaga Council of Chiefs of the Hau de no sau nee, 3 July 1991

5. Exemplar of Liberty

Native America and the Evolution of Democracy, complete 1990 book

6. Native American Political Systems and the Evolution of Democracy:

An Annotated Bibliography, complete 1996 living book

7. Reaching the Grassroots:The World-wide Diffusion of Iroquois Democratic Traditions, April 2002

8. Borked! Tales From the Ramparts of Multiculturalism

9. Oren Lyons at the UN:Opening Speech for "The Year of the Indigenous Peoples", 1993

10. Telling The Iroquois Story On CD-ROM

11. Oren Lyons: World Bank, October 3, 1995

Ethics and Spiritual Values and the Promotion of

Environmentally Sustainable Development"50 Years of the World Bank, Over 50 Tribes Devastated"

12. Dating the Iroquois Confederacy

13. Guest Essay, Sovereignty and Treaty Rights - We Remember

14. Guest Essay, Haudenosaunee Environmental Action Planand articles related to the 1995 United Nations Summit of the Elders:

1. Summit of the Elders; Haudenosaunee Environmental Restoration Strategy2. Principles for Environmental Restoration3. Iroquois at the UN4. Presentation to the United Nations5. Demonizing the Big Glass House

15. Indian Magna Carta Writ In Wampum Belts

16. Iroquois Population in 1995

17. How Much Land Did the Iroquois Possess?
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Drawn by JOSEPH KEPPLER

SAVAGERY TO "CIVILIZATION"THE INDIAN WOMEN: We whom you pity as drudges

reached centuries ago the goal that you are now nearing

The use of Indian women to provide an exemplar of feminist liberty continued into thenineteenth century. On May 16, 1914, only six years before the first national electionin which women had the vote, Puckprinted a line drawing of a group of Indian womenobserving Susan B. Anthony, Anne Howard Shaw and Elizabeth 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 Children

Ours 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 and foreign policies;

Ours is the trusteeship of tribal property;

Our lives are valued again as high as man's. [67]

Figure 38, from Exemplar of Liberty, Native America and the Evolution of Democracy,Chp.11, "The Persistence of an Idea, Impressions of Iroquois liberty after the

eighteenth century"
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On the Web:

HAUDENOSAUNEE: People Building a Long House:the Haudenosaunee Home Page, comprised of the traditional leadership of the Seneca, Cayuga,

Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora Nations.

Iroquois History (from First Nations/First Peoples Issues) Iroquois, Haudenosaunee website: Welcome to Me & U: Mother Earth & Us

o Welcome to Peace 4 Turtle Island

Gayogoho:no (The People of the Great Swamp) Cayuga

Kahniakehake (People of the Flint) Mohawk

Onyota'a:ka (People of the Standing Stone) Oneida

Onoda'gega (People of the Hills) Onondaga

Onodowahgah (The People of the Great Hill) Seneca

Ska-ru-ren (Those of the Indian Hemp) Tuscarora

Oneida Indian Nation

Six Nations Indian Museum

The Iroquois Constitution at theUniversity of Oklahoma Law Center's Chronology of US Historical Documents

Available InBoth Languages: The Mohawk Language Standardisation Project,

and Kanien'keh:ka Ohiatonhkwa'shn:'a Katoknhston TekawennathkwenThis site contains a conference report on the Mohawk Language Standardisation Project

undertaken in 1993. The report is presented in Kanien'keh and English. It contains extensive

orthographic information on the new writing standard and also contains valuable phonemic charts.

Also of interest is the inclusion of some archaic vocabulary.

The Wampum Chronicles: Mohawk Territory on the Internet

Wampum -- Native American Beadwork

Native Nations -- Tribes of U.S. and Canada

The Guardianby John Kahionhes Fadden

The eagle is the guardian bird of the Haudenosaunee,

and is often seen in images as being above the Tree of Peace.
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A Basic Call to Consciousness, The Hau de no sau nee Address to the Western

World,

Geneva, Switzerland, Autumn 1977

What is presented here is nothing less audacious than a cosmogony of the Industrialized

World presented by the most politically powerful and independent non-Western political body

surviving in North America. It is, in a way, the modern world through Pleistocene eyes.Scholars and casual readers alike should question the significance, in the age of the Neutron

bomb, Watergate, and nuclear energy plant proliferation, of a statement by a North American

Indian people. But there is probably some argument to be made for the appropriateness of such a

statement at this time. Most of the world's professed traditions are fairly recent in origin.

Mohammedanism is perhaps 1500 years old, Christianity claims a 2000-year history, Judaism is

perhaps 2000 years older than Christianity.

But the Native people can probably lay claim to a tradition which reaches back to at least

the end of the Pleistocene, and which, in all probability, goes back much further than that.

There is some evidence that humanoid creatures have been present on the earth for at least

two million years, and that humans who looked very much like us were in evidence in the

Northern Hemisphere at least as long as the second interglacial period. People who are familiar

with the Hau de no sau nee beliefs will recognize that modern scientific evidence shows that the

Native customs of today are not markedly different from those practiced by ancient peoples atleast 70000 years ago. Indeed, if an Iroquois traditionalist were to seek a career in the study of

Pleistocene Man, he may find that he already knows more about the most ancient belief systems

than do the modern scholars.

Be that as it may, the Hau de no see nee position is derived from a philosophy which sees

The People with historical roots which extend back tens of thousands of years. It is a geological

kind of perspective, which sees modern man as an infant, occupying a very short space of time in

an incredibly long spectrum. It is the perspective of the oldest elder looking into the affairs of a

young child and seeing that he is committing incredibly destructive folly. It is, in short, the

statement of a people who are ageless but who trace their history as a people to the very beginning

of time. And they are speaking, in this instance, to a world which dates its existence from a little

over 500 years ago, and perhaps, in many cases, much more recently than that.

And it is, to our knowledge, the very first statement to be issued by a Native nation. What

follows are not the research products of psychologists, historians, or anthropologists. The paperswhich follow are the first authentic analyses of the modern world ever committed to writing by an

official body of Native people.

-- from the Introduction
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Figure 3. Peacemaker presents his vision. By John Kahionhes Fadden.(from Chp.2, "Perceptions of America's Native Democracies", Exemplar of Liberty)

COMPLETE BOOK:

Exemplar of Liberty, Native America and the Evolution of Democracy,by Donald A. Grinde, Jr. and Bruce E. Johansen, 1990

from the Introduction:We believe that American history will not be complete until its indigenous aspects have

been recognized and incorporated into the teaching of history. We have assembled here a mosaic

of fact and opinion which, taken together, indicates that the objective of the contemporary debate

should be to define the role Native American precedents deserve in the broader ambit of American

history. . . . Our thesis holds that the character of American democracy evolved importantly

(although, of course, not soley), from the examples provided by American Indian confederacies

which ringed the land borders of the British colonies. These examples provided a reality, as well

as exercise for the imagination -- and it is imagination, above all, that foments revolutions. In this

book, we attempt to provide a picture of how these native confederacies operated, and how

important architects of American institutions, ideals and other character traits perceived them. We

operate as much as we are able from the historical recordper se, relaying as much of original

accounts as possible. . . .We attempt to trace both events and ideas: life, liberty, happiness; government by reason

and consent rather than coercion, religious toleration (and ultimately religious acceptance) instead

of a state church; checks and balances, federalism; relative equality of property, equal rights

before the law and the thorny problem of creating a government that can rule equitably across a

broad geographic expanse. Native America had a substantial role in shaping all these ideas, as well

as the events that turned colonies into a nation of states. In a way that may be difficult to

understand from the vantage point of the late twentieth century, Native Americans were present at

the conception of the United States. We owe part of our national soul to those who came before us

on this soil.
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As is the case with many histories, this book proceeds along a time line. Except for a few

earlier premonitions, our historical study begins around 1600 with "Vox Americana," which

summarizes early English and French traders', missionaries' and settlers' accounts of native

political organization and attitudes toward liberty. "Perceptions of America's Native Democracies"

continues this theme with brief descriptions of how Native American nations that bordered the

British colonies ordered their affairs. "Natural Man in an Unnatural Land" examines the image of

American Indian peoples in European popular culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries;

"Ennobling Savages'" considers the degree to which the same image was reflected in the works of

major French and British philosophers of the time. "Errand in the Wilderness" takes the story back

across the Atlantic for a detailed study of Roger Williams's use of native precedents for political

freedom and religious toleration. "The White Roots Reach Out" concentrates on the idea of

federalism as seen through the eyes of Benjamin Franklin and mid-eighteenth century leaders of

the Iroquois such as Canassatego and Hendrick (Tiyanoga), centering on the Albany Congress of

1754.

The revolutionary era begins with "Mohawks, Axes, and Taxes," an account of ways in

which the image of the Indian was reflected in propaganda and popular art between 1763 and

1776. "A New Chapter" compares the images of native America as utilized by Franklin, Thomas

Jefferson and Thomas Paine. The timeline resumes once again in "An American Synthesis," which

organizes events (between roughly 1775 and 1786) around the founding of the Sons of Saint

Tammany, a patriotic organization succeeding the Sons of Liberty, which combined European and

Native American ideas and motifs. "Kindling a New Grand Council Fire" continues the study intothe constitutional period. "The Persistence of an Idea" traces references to native ideas in

governance (particularly those of the Iroquois) through the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century

and thus concludes our analysis.

Figure 10. "Our wise forefathers established Union and Amity between the FiveNations. This has made us formidable; this has given us great Weight and Authoritywith our neighboring Nations. We are a powerful Confederacy; and by yourobserving the same methods, our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire suchStrength and power. Therefore, whatever befalls you, never fall out with one
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another." Canassatego, the great Iroquois chief, advising the assembled colonialgovernors on Iroquois concepts of unity in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1744.

Artwork by John Kahionhes Fadden.(from Chp.6, "The White Roots Reach Out", Exemplar of Liberty)

COMPLETE BOOK:

Forgotten Founders, Benjamin Franklin,

the Iroquois and the Rationale for the American Revolution,

by Bruce E. Johansen, 1982; inside Book Jacket Book excerpts

New additional formats: PDF | ASCII text

from the Introduction:

This book has two major purposes. First, it seeks to weave a few new threads into thetapestry of American revolutionary history, to begin the telling of a larger story that has lain

largely forgotten, scattered around dusty archives, for more than two centuries. By arguing that

American Indians (principally the Iroquois) played a major role in shaping the ideas of Franklin

(and thus, the American Revolution) I do not mean to demean or denigrate European influences. I

mean not to subtract from the existing record, but to add an indigenous aspect, to show how

America has been a creation of all its peoples.

In the telling, this story also seeks to demolish what remains of stereotypical assumptions

that American Indians were somehow too simpleminded to engage in effective social and political

organization. No one may doubt any longer that there has been more to history, much more, than

the simple opposition of "savagery" and "civilization." History's popular writers have served us

with many kinds of savages, noble and vicious, "good Indians" and "bad Indians," nearly always

as beings too preoccupied with the essentials of the hunt to engage in philosophy and statecraft.

This was simply not the case. Franklin and his fellow founders knew differently. Theylearned from American Indians, by assimilating into their vision of the future, aspects of American

Indian wisdom and beauty. Our task is to relearn history as they experienced it, in all its richness

and complexity, and thereby to arrive at a more complete understanding of what we were, what we

are, and what we may become.

from Chapter 3, Our Indians Have Outdone the Romans:The Iroquois' extension of liberty and political participation to women surprised some

eighteenth-century Euro-American observers. An unsigned contemporary manuscript in the New

York State Library reported that when Iroquois men returned from hunting, they turned everything

they had caught over to the women. "Indeed, every possession of the man except his horse & his

rifle belong to the woman after marriage; she takes care of their Money and Gives it to her

husband as she thinks his necessities require it," the unnamed observer wrote. The writer sought to

refute assumptions that Iroquois women were "slaves of their husbands." "The truth is that Womenare treated in a much more respectful manner than in England & that they possess a very superior

power; this is to be attributed in a very great measure to their system of Education." The women,

in addition to their political power and control of allocation from the communal stores, acted as

communicators of culture between generations. It was they who educated the young.

Another matter that surprised many contemporary observers was the Iroquois' sophisticated

use of oratory. Their excellence with the spoken word, among other attributes, often caused

Colden and others to compare the Iroquois to the Romans and Greeks.
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Haudenosaunee Councilby John Kahionhes Fadden

COMPLETE livingBOOK:

Native American Political Systems and the Evolution of Democracy:

An Annotated Bibliography, by Bruce E. Johansen

Updated to November 12, 1997 (reflecting the author's continued gathering of

citations).

Since 1992, I have kept a bibliography of commentary on assertions that the Haudenosaunee

(Iroquois) and other Native American confederacies helped shape ideas of democracy in the early

United States. By 1995, the bibliography had reached roughly 455 items from more than 120

books, as well as newspaper articles and book reviews numbering in the hundreds, academicjournals, films, speeches, documentaries, and other sources. The bibliography was assembled with

the help of friends, as well as searches of libraries and book stores, and personal involvement in

various skirmishes of the debate. The number of references exploded during 1995 because I began

to search several electronic databases.

Before I explored these databases, I had been acquainted with the spread of the idea on a

more personal level, especially through debates in academia that have been chronicled with

Donald A. Grinde, Jr. inAkwe:kon Journal(nowNative Americas) and theAmerican Indian

Culture & Research Journal(1993.014, 1990.002). Now, I was watching the idea take on an

animus of its own, detached from its scholarly moorings. As the debate expanded in popular

consciousness, a grand cacophony of diverse voices debated the type of history with which we

will enter a new millennium on the Christian calendar. . . .

Despite its caricature as a horror story of "political correctness" and the jarring nature of

some of the debate over the issue, the idea that Native American confederacies are an important

early form of democracy has become established in general discourse. History is made in many

ways, by many people; the spread of the idea that Native American confederacies (especially the

Haudenosaunee Confederacy) helped shape the intellectual development of democracy m the

United States and Europe is an example of how our notions of history have been changing with the

infusion of multicultural voices. It is fascinating to watch the change in all its forms -- and the

debate over the issue in all its cacophonous variety. This bibliography comprises the "field notes"

of my journey.

-- from the Preface
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Reaching the Grassroots:The World-wide Diffusion of Iroquois Democratic Traditions

by Bruce Johansen, April 2002

A new "influence" summary:

Immigrants from Europe often have borrowed from native peoples, embraced this knowledge as

their own, and then forgotten its origins. Meanwhile, the prevailing assumptions of the "winners'"

histories condemn Native Americans as primitive and brutish. The reconstruction of history in its

true complexity takes some work, since it often runs counter to the heavy weight of well-

established assumptions.

So it has been in the evolution of democracy, [Richard] Williams [executive director of the

American Indian College Fund] believes: "The political structure of the great Iroquois

Confederacy served as a model for democracy among the founding fathers, who wrote the

Constitution based on `we the people,' something unheard of in the aristocratic, feudal societies of

Europe. In fact, there is no word for `I' in any American Indian language, which was a profound

concept to the framers who closely studied the tribes' customs, government and culture."

The Six Nations Confederacy was and is likened to a longhouseby John Kahionhes Fadden

Images of the Six Nations are identified by the style of hat they're wearing

located about the six smokeholes.

Borked! Tales From the Ramparts of Multiculturalism, by Bruce E. Johansen

I removed a copy of Robert H. Bork's Slouching Toward Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism

and American Decline from our Library's new-books shelf with a sense of impending ironic

triumph. Would I be able to add yet another sliming of my life's academic work by a neo-
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conservative household name who has never heard of me?

After consulting Bork's index under "Iroquois Confederacy," on pages 306 and 307, I hit

pay dirt. I ceased to be a mild-mannered middle-aged professor of principally Norwegian

extraction who has spent 15 years at a Midwestern university teaching undergraduates how to

write newspaper stories and essays on Black Elk. Suddenly, I saw myself portrayed by Bork as a

primary sloucher toward Gomorrah in his pantheon of politically motivated assassins of western

civilization's most cherished canons, an advocate of the demon multiculturalism, and a bona fide

barbarian at the Gate. This is heady stuff for a professor from Nebraska.

Oren Lyons at the UN: Opening Speech for "The Year of the Indigenous

Peoples", 1993

This proclamation brings home inspiration and renewed dedication to our quest for self-

determination, justice, freedom and peace in our Homelands and our Territories. Indeed, the quest

is a renewal of what we enjoyed before the coming of our White Brothers from across the sea. We

lived contentedly under the Gai Eneshah Go' Nah, The Great Law of Peace. We were instructed tocreate societies based on the principles of Peace, Equity, Justice, and the Power of Good Minds.

Our societies are based upon great democratic principles of the authority of the people and equal

responsibilities for the men and the women. This was a great way of life across this Great Turtle

Island and freedom with respect was everywhere. Our leaders were instructed to be men of vision

and to make every decision on behalf of the seventh generation to come; to have compassion and

love for those generations yet unborn. We were instructed to give thanks for All That Sustains Us.

Thus, we created great ceremonies of Thanksgiving for the life-giving forces of the Natural World,

as long as we carried out our ceremonies, life would continue. We were told that 'The Seed is the

Law.' Indeed, it is The Law of Life. It is The Law of Regeneration. Within the seed is the

mysterious force of life and creation. Our mothers nurture and guard that seed and we respect and

love them for that. Just as we love I hi do' hah, our Mother Earth, for the same spiritual work and

mystery.

Telling The Iroquois Story On CD-ROM, by Bruce Johansen

The two-volume Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americasprefaces its treatment

of this subject with a defense of the fact that "this history of Native Americans has been written by

Euro-Americans and Euro-Canadians." Despite a "growing number of Native Americans who are

writing about their past," the reader is told, "the professional study of Native American history

remains largely the domain of historians and anthropologists Of European descent."

"Professional study" is a problematic phrase here, because Native American authors have

been telling their own story in the English language since at least the days of George Copway,

who also could run 60 miles a day, roughly two centuries ago. What is one to make of such astatement poised against the literate lives of Arthur Parker, Luther Standing Bear, Gertrude

Bonnin, or Vine Deloria, Jr.? In our time, the academic landscape teems with Native people who

have the requisite degrees, academic positions and publication records to write excellent

encyclopedia entries.
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Figure 32. In 1775, treaty commissioners at Albany recall the words of Canassatego.By John Kahionhes Fadden.

(from Chp.8, "A New Chapter, Images of native America in the writingsof Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine", Exemplar of Liberty)

Akwesasne Notes New Series, Fall, 1995:

Dating the Iroquois Confederacy, by Bruce E. Johansen, pp. 62-63.

The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, one of the world's oldest democracies, is at

least three centuries older than most previous estimates, according to research by Barbara Mann

and Jerry Fields of Toledo University, Ohio.

Using a combination of documentary sources, solar eclipse data, and Iroquois oral history,

Mann and Fields assert that the Iroquois Confederacy's body of law was adopted by the Senecas

(the last of the five nations to ratify it) August 31, 1142. The ratification council convened at a site

that is now a football field in Victor, New York. The site is called Gonandaga by the Seneca.

Guest Essay, Sovereignty and Treaty Rights - We Remember, by G. Peter

Jemison, pp. 10-15.

I want to talk about our original treaties because we not only made treaties with the United

States, but we also made treaties with other foreign countries, and perhaps the first one that we

made was with the Dutch. We used a wampum belt. That is, a two row wampum belt with two

parallel lines on a field of white. We used wampum belts to help us commemorate our treaties.
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14/18

Wampum, as you may know, is made of shell, a combination of quahog and the periwinkle shell,

cut and made into tubular beads and then strung into a belt. The purpose of the belt, to use an

anthropological term, is as a mnemonic device for remembering important ideas, so that when the

reader of the belt holds it in his hands, the idea literally comes from the belt.[2]

These two parallel lines signify this to us: On the one hand, we are travelling in our canoe,

down the river of life, and travelling in a parallel line in their boat are those Europeans or Euro-

Americans who are here on our land, Turtle Island. We are travelling along and we have an

agreement with one another. I am not going to get out of my canoe and get into your boat and try

to steer it, and I am going to ask you not to get out of your boat and get into my canoe and try to

steer it. We are going to allow one another to exist. We are going to accept the notion, that we are

sovereign, that we have our own form of government and that you have yours. We have our own

way of life, and that you have yours, and that we are not trying to convince you to be us; we are

trying to convince you that because of our long history here, we have a knowledge of this place

where we live. And so, we use this two row wampum belt even now, as the basis for all of the

other treaties that we made after this time.

Guest Essay, Haudenosaunee Environmental Action Plan, by F. Henry Lickers,pp. 16-17.

Over the past 18 months, the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force has labored on adocument which would begin the process of detailing the environmental impacts that the western

society has had on our lands and territories. . . .

The Haudenosaunee Environmental Restoration, An Indigenous Strategy for Human Sustainabilitydocument was compiled and edited for presentation to the United Nations Environmental

Program.

Summit of the Elders; Haudenosaunee Environmental Restoration Strategy, pp.

66-69.

The proposed Summit is a combination of several months of intense work, both by United

Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the task force established by the Confederacy to

review the range of environmental hazards to which their communities have been exposed and todocument as precisely as possible, the sources and nature of these hazards, as well as to design a

plan of action for their remediation and the environmental restoration of the territories in question.

. . .

We, the Haudenosaunee, bring our case to the United Nations to draw international attention

to the environmental issues affecting the indigenous communities in North America.

Having made a major contribution to the Rio Earth Summit in bringing about Chapter 26 of

Agenda 21, we maintain that our traditional strategy for sustainable development practices and

coexistence is a model for the future survival of humanity on earth. We are committed to

continuing our sustainable economic practices.

Principles for Environmental Restorationp. 70.o Chapter 26 of Agenda 21 formulated at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit recognizes the right

of the indigenous communities and their representatives to undertake reviews as well asdevelop environmental strategies with regard to land and water based pollution. . . .

o The restoration must not be confined just to removing the wastes and pollution, but must

also be extended to the social and cultural dimensions of the communities, the nations

and the Confederacy. . . .

o As sovereign governments, the Haudenosaunee have complete jurisdiction over native

territories. The Haudenosaunee jurisdiction should extend cooperatively to the

surrounding areas that impact the ecosystem of the native territories. . . .
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o Haudenosaunee should be assured adequate international legal resources that must ensure

that the U.S. and Canadian legal systems recognize a right to full compensation for

collective and individual damages from the effects of environmental pollution.

Iroquois at the UN, by Doug George-Kanentiio, p. 71.

The hard work of the Haudenosaunee on behalf of the world's native populations have won

for them many friends at the UN. . . . On July 18 the Confederacy had official representatives fromall six nations . . . at the UN to give testimony about conditions on Iroquois territory. . . .

This document summarizes the current conditions on Iroquois lands and offers concrete

solutions to return Mother Earth to her former state. It proposes the creation of an indigenous

environmental learning center to study problem areas and offer solutions. This center would also

coordinate information, define economic development strategies and assist in the preservation of

culture.

Presentation to the United Nations

by Carol Jacobs, Cayuga Bear Clan Mother, pp. 116-117.

Among us, it is women who are responsible for fostering life. In our traditions, it is women

who carry the seeds, both of our own future generations and of the plant life. It is women who

plant and tend the gardens, and women who bear and raise the children. It is my right and duty, as

a woman and a mother and a grandmother, to speak to you about these things, to bring our minds

together on them. . . .

In making any law, our chiefs must always consider three things: the effect of their decision

on peace; the effect on the natural world; and the effect on seven generations in the future. We

believe that all lawmakers should be required to think this way, that all constitutions should

contain these rules. . . .

. . . we are a powerful people. We are the carriers of knowledge and ideas that the world

needs today. We know how to live with this land: we have done so for thousands of years and

have not suffered many of the changes of the Industrial Revolution, though we are being buffeted

by the waves of its collapse.

Our families are beyond the small, isolated nuclear families that are so convenient to big

industry and big government and so damaging to communities.

Demonizing the Big Glass Houseby Jack Wandell, pp. 118-120.

The Haudenosaunee Report commends the European Parliament, which earlier this month,

in a stringing rebuff to Europe's biotechnology industry, rejected a directive that would have

granted legal protection to patents on life forms. Many members of the European Parliament view

all patenting of life forms as unethical and morally reprehensible.[2]

" . . . We are instructed to carry a love for one another and to show a great respect

for all the beings of this earth. We were shown that our life exists with the tree life, that

our well-being depends on the well-being of the vegetable life, that we are close relations

of the four-legged beings. In our ways spiritual consciousness is the highest form of

politics. . . ."We must recognize our enemies, the forces of darkness that now march across all

lands in the Four Sacred Directions, throwing the shadow of death and destruction even

into the seventh generation to come. . . .

"We must stand together, the four sacred colors of humankind, as the one family

that we are in the interest of peace. . . .

"Our energy is the combined will of all people with the spirit of the natural world,

to be of one body, one heart and one mind for peace. . . . "
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The above words were spoken by Tadodaho, Chief Leon Shenandoah, not on July 18 of this year,

but at the 40th Anniversary celebration of the UN.

Indian Magna Carta Writ In Wampum Belts, Six Nations Shows Treaty Granting

Them Independent Sovereignty as Long as Sun Shines, pp. 64-65.By Howard McLellan, reprinted from The New York Times, June 7, 1925.

Iroquois Population in 1995, by Doug George-Kanentiio, p. 61.

It is not unreasonable to guess the Iroquois numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Physical

evidence seems to sustain this argument because there is virtually no place within our aboriginal

territories which was not settled, cultivated or otherwise occupied by the Iroquois. . . .

According to the Canadian and U.S. census there are 74,518 Iroquois in North America, the

majority of whom live north of the border.

How Much Land Did the Iroquois Possess?, by Doug George-Kanentiio, p. 60.

Prior to European colonization the Iroquois exercised active dominion over most of what is

now New York State. Of the 49,576 square miles of the state the Iroquois held title to about 4/5 of

the total area (approximately 39,000 square miles). . . .All together the Iroquois Confederacy held as its own 24,894,080 acres of some of the most

beautiful and resource wealthy lands in all of North America. Yet traditional Iroquois were careful

custodians of the earth for nowhere in this broad expanse of territory was there a single polluted

stream, hazardous waste site or open landfill.

Figure 36. In his Defence of the Constitution of . . . Government in the
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United States, John Adams discussed the Iroquois political system. ByJohn Kahionhes Fadden.

Adams' Defence was a critical survey of world governments and heincluded a description of the Iroquois and other Native Americangovernment in his analysis. In his preface, Adams mentioned the Inca,

Manco Capac, and the political structure "of the Peruvians." He alsonoted that tribes in "North America have certain families from whichtheir leaders are always chosen."[30] Adams believed that AmericanIndian governments collected their authority in one center (a simple orunicameral model), and he also observed that in American Indiangovernments "the people" believed that "all depended on them."[31]Later in the preface, John Adams observed that Benjamin Franklin, theFrench Philosophes and other "great philosophers and politicians of theage were "attempting to "set up governments of . . . modern Indians."[32]

(from Chp.10, "Kindling a New National Grand Council Fire,Native American liberty and the U.S. Constitution", Exemplar of Liberty)

Credits

This collection of documents and images has been made possible

by the generosity and support of the following authors:

Bruce E. Johansen --

Professor of Communication and Native American Studies University of

Nebraska at Omaha, Bruce gave permission to reproduceForgotten Founders andExemplar of Liberty in their entirety here for which we are extremely grateful. Healso made available his "living document" version ofNative American Political

Systems and the Evolution of Democracy:An Annotated Bibliography which we

will continue to update as he sends citations discovered as time goes on. Bruce

can be contacted [email protected].

Donald A. Grinde --

Professor and Chair of American Studies at the University of Buffalo, Don gave

permission to reproduceExemplar of Liberty in its entirety here for which we are

extremely grateful.

John Kahionhes Fadden --

John has generously made some of his artwork available, documentation on theSix Nations and given permission to include all the drawings he created forExemplar of Liberty. We are also indebted to John for allowing us to reproduce

other images he provided us copies with that are included on this page. John canbe reached at:

Six Nations Indian MuseumHCR 1, Box 10
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Onchiota, NY 12989

518/891-2299

1. Regarding the origination of the wordIroquois,

Another matter that surprised many contemporary observers was the Iroquois' sophisticated use of

oratory. Their excellence with the spoken word, among other attributes, often caused Colden and

others to compare the Iroquois to the Romans and Greeks. The French use of the term Iroquois to

describe the confederacy was itself related to this oral tradition; it came from the practice of

ending their orations with the two words hiro and kone. The first meant "I say" or "I have said"

and the second was an exclamation of joy or sorrow according to the circumstances of the speech.

The two words, joined and made subject to French pronunciation, became Iroquois. The English

were often exposed to the Iroquois' oratorical skills at eighteenth-century treaty councils.

-- from ``Chapter 3, "Our Indians Have Outdone the Romans",''Forgotten Found
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