The Iroquois people were Native Americans who lived in and around modern-day New York state, including smaller parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, Quebec and some New England states. The Iroquois Confederacy was a group of several tribes which were allied under one “constitution” and system of governance. For a long time, early historians assumed that there must have been some European influence on these tribes. How else, they thought, would these "uncivilized" people have developed such an advanced form of government?
But based on the very detailed oral histories of these tribes and their correlation with events that can be fixed in time (e.g. a comet or a period of climate change), the confederacy probably was in place for centuries by the time Europeans began to settle the east coast of the Americas. And in fact, the Iroquois may have had a profound effect on the U.S. Constitution; please read the following article for more information on this.
The Influence of the Magna Carta and European Philosophies
Another major set of influences on the U.S. Constitution did come from Europe. In large part, Europe in the 1700s still was ruled by kings and queens. Their legitimacy to rule came from God, or so it was believed (this was called “Divine Right” monarchy). These monarchs’ grip on power started to slip, however. The first hint of this came in England in 1215, when the Magna Carta (“Great Charter”) was signed by the English King John in 1215.
A group of nobles and influential clergymen forced the king to sign this document, which provided that the government could not arbitrarily take their property or infringe on certain rights without submitting to the rule of law. This was one small step towards ceding some power to others, even if they were lords and barons and earls at that time. And in the 1700s, Europe still was largely ruled by divine-right monarchs.
Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and the other founders of the United States of America were influenced heavily by philosophies of the Enlightenment that came out of Europe. Both the American and French revolutions then followed. The philosopher John Locke believed that human beings are basically good and that everyone has natural rights. As he wrote, these include “life, health, liberty, and possessions”. The French revolutionaries read this as “life, liberty, and property” while Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence used the phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Social contract theory emerged from this. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau expanded on Locke’s views, holding that the reason for government must be that there is a social contract between the people and their government. Government exists to help people and people provide government with their consent to its power. Why, then, were these kings doing horrible things and getting away with it? These ideas fueled revolutions in France and America. Another influence on the U.S. Constitution was the philosophy of Montesquieu (who generally is referred to by just one name), another Frenchman who had an idea for limiting the power of any one person or group of people in government.
His idea was to break up the power into three branches, each of which carried out certain functions. And from that idea was born the decentralization of the U.S. government. The following article sheds more light on the Iroquois Confederacy’s apparent influence on the U.S. Constitution and, ultimately, on the system of law and government we know today.
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The following is an article by J. Idarius from http://www.ipoaa.com/vast_influence_of_iroquois.htm .
The Vast Influence of the Iroquois
"(The Iroquois league) was a model social order in many ways superior to the white man's culture of the day. . . . Its democratic form of government more nearly approached perfection than any that has been tried to date." -Elmore Reaman 1967
Because historians tend to focus on military engagements and changes in national boundaries, our population has less understanding of cultural and social interactions. In an interesting twist of interpretation, Felix Cohen proposed, in a 1952 article called "Americanizing the White Man," that "(historians) have seen America only as an imitation of Europe," but that "the real epic of America is the yet unfinished story of the Americanization of the white man." He defines Americanism as largely a product of the influence of Indian culture on the white European settlers.
In an equally bold statement, Francis Jennings in The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism and the Cant of Conquest (1975) states that "What white (American) society owes to Indian society, as much as to any other source, is the mere fact of its existence." Early Euro-Americans voluntarily adopted methods, lifestyles, artifacts, and ideas from the indigenous people, often in order to survive. Indians in America provided half of the modern world's domesticated food crops, numerous herbal medicines, clothing, transportation pathways and modes, crafts and artifacts, hygiene methods, and thousands of words including place names and ideas of governance that blended ideals of rugged individuality with concern for the common welfare.
The Iroquois republic had continuously existed since the 14th or 15th century. In 1930, Arthur Pound's Johnson of the Mohawks states, "With the possible exception of the also unwritten British Constitution, deriving from the Magna Carta, the Iroquois Constitution is the longest-going international constitution in the world." Known as "The Great Law of Peace," this orally transmitted constitution describes a federal union of five (later six) Indian nations: Mohawk, Onondagam Seneca, Oneida, Cayuga and the Tuscarora, adopted in 1715. It was only put in writing in 1915 by Arthur C. Parker, archeologist for the State Museum of New York.
The Europeans and Iroquois of the mid-18th century were on more than friendly terms. Many English nobles adopted the lifestyle of Indians and joined their nations. The Treaty Councils brought cultural exchanges in which leaders and statesmen met as equals to diplomatically solve problems and alleviate strained relations. The trade of Great Britain and the peace and prosperity of the colonies was dependent on this alliance.
During this era, Benjamin Franklin published twenty-six treaty accounts and represented the state of Pennsylvania as an Indian commissioner. In the pre-Revolutionary period, when he and his friends were advocating a federal union of the colonies, no European model was found to be suitable. Franklin's contact with the Iroquois influenced many key ideas for a new form of government-federalism, equality, natural rights, freedom of religion, property rights, etc. At the 1744 treaty council, by Franklin's account, Canassatego, speaker for the great council at Onondaga, recommended that the colonies form a union in common defense under a federal government: "We are a powerful Confederacy, and by your observing the same methods our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire much strength and power; therefore, whatever befalls you, do not fall out with one another."
In arguing for such a plan, Franklin stressed the fact that the individual nations of the confederacy managed their own internal affairs without interference from the Grand Council. Twenty years after Franklin's plan was defeated at the Albany congress, it reappeared in the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. Franklin, Jefferson, John Adams, and George Washington were all familiar with the Iroquois polity. There is also strong scholarly evidence that European philosophers such as Locke, Rousseau, More, and Hobbes were familiar with the societies of American Indians. The integration of this knowledge into their theories of utopias and natural societies further inspired the U.S. founding fathers.
Each of the Iroquois nations was represented to the Confederate Council by a lord of the confederacy and one war chief. Their league included a system of checks and balances, and no action could be taken without the approval of all five Indian nations. Their notions of equality and liberty extended to women as well as men. In war, they never enslaved captives but offered to adopt those willing to accept the Great Law. Their own members could be alienated or expelled for not following the Great Law, and a non-member could be adopted by proposal or invitation with approval from the lords.
In their constitution, the lords of the confederacy are described as mentors and spiritual guides of the people; their hearts are to be full of peace and goodwill, and their minds full of yearning for the welfare of the people, including those of future generations; their words and actions are to be marked by calm deliberation. They must be honest and have no self-interest; if they become wayward they receive warnings first from the clan women and then from the men. If they persist in negative behaviors, they ultimately lose their position and possibly their life.
The lords are poorer than the common people. They own few material possessions, and give away all presents or plunder acquired by treaty or war. They are above pettiness and corruption, and show no signs of selfishness.
Those who recognized the wisdom and long history of the Iroquois government did not consider the Indians as mere "savages." Like the Iroquois, Thomas Jefferson believed that public opinion and popular consent were key in maintaining freedom and good government. He held that the power of public opinion was an important reason for the Iroquois' lack of oppressive government and class difference, and for their power to impeach officials who offended governing principles. Like the Iroquois, he also believed that the best government is the least government.
In oratory, the Europeans compared the Iroquois with the Greeks and Romans. Both emphasized ethical proof in their arguments. The Indians ended their orations with the words hiro and kone. Hiro means "I have said," and kone was spoken as an exclamation of joy or sorrow, depending on the occasion and circumstance. The French pronunciation of these words together became "Iroquois."
Unlike Europe, the Iroquois society was matrilineal. Women owned the land and the status of their lineage. They owned all possessions of their husbands after marriage except their horse and rifle; they took charge of the money, and were the tribe's educators and communicators of tradition. The female heirs of the lords of the confederacy were called royaneh (noble). The lord of the confederacy was nominated by women-selected for qualities of trustworthiness, good character, honesty, faithfulness to the people and nation, support of family, and good management of personal affairs.
There was no state religion, and the religious rites and festivals of each nation were safeguarded against being disturbed or interrupted. Civil duties were separated from those of the religious leaders, and festivals were held in the longhouses. In examining the vision of our forefathers and the many hundreds of years of the Iroquois confederacy's success, we see how far we have strayed in just over two hundred years. More and more a nation of law and order, with vast class and economic distinctions and political favoritism, we would do well to reeducate ourselves in the values of the Iroquois-honesty, good character, honor, the power of spoken word and public opinion, and the high status of women.