The Iroquois Constitution - An Important Part of the American Political Tradition! - a podcast by Christy and Garry Shriver

The Iroquois Constitution - An Important Part of the American Political Tradition!

 

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. 

 

And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.   If you are listening to this in real time, it is the first week of December.  The Christmas season is descending on Memphis and that means lots of decorations, and festivities and parties- so fun.  Last night we were at a “friendsgiving”-  

 

A friendsgiving is a new word I had never heard of before.  

 

I think it’s been around for awhile. 

 

I’m pretty sure the first time I heard of it really is when the girls started having them with friends.  Lizzy would have them with her friends back when she was still in high school, most of the time the day after thanksgiving, they’d have a meal- kind of like we’d had as a family- they’d cook.  And then, when Anna was in college, she hosted an enormous one, actually bigger than our family one.  Over 40 college kids all sitting around eating turkey and what not before they would go home to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families.   I’ll post a picture on Instagram.  Anna couldn’t get all of the crowd in a single picture because they were spread all over her house, but you can get the idea.  
 

And of course, Thanksgiving is a very American thing, indigenous to this hodgepodge which is culture in America which has pulled from so many other and older cultures from all over the world.  As a national holiday, Thanksgiving didn’t exist until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that a national Thanksgiving day would be held each November.  But the holiday has its roots in the early days when the Europeans first arrived on the American continent, starving and suffering from scurvy.  They were helped by indigenous people who taught them how to cultivate corn and other techniques that would enable them to survive in this foreign howling wilderness.  Those original settlers formed an alliance with the Wampanoag tribe that would last over fifty years, and unfortunately although it is one of few examples of harmony between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the America, it IS one example of harmony.  After the first harvest for those early pilgrims, William Bradford their governor invited their new indigenous friends for a festival that would last for three days in which they celebrated together.  The official Pilgrim chronicler wrote these words, “Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that we might, after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help besides, served the company almost a week, at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted.” 

 

Well, there you go- the original thanksgiving was actually a friendsgiving…which brings us to this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Garry and I are Christians, so as the year comes to a close, we turn our thoughts towards Christmas, as a sacred holiday celebrating Christ, but also all of the fun that goes with that. We love it- lots of decorations, parties, food, and music- this idea of peace on earth and good tidings for all people.  But, Christians, obviously are not the only people to seek peace, or even celebrate the end of the year with festivities-  all peoples of all nations do that in various ways.  And on this American continent, in the cultures that existed here long before the pilgrims had their friendsgiving with the Wampanoag people, there was a very influential hero who contributed greatly to bringing peace to thousands of indigenous people of this continent and who likely influenced the peacekeeping instrument that still binds Americans together, the American constitution. 

 

And in case you haven’t figured out who we are talking about, or are unfamiliar with this name, today we have decided to take a minute to look at the Iroquois confederation, the notable creators of the document today we call the Iroquois constitution and their mythical peacemaker, Dekanawidah.   

 

Dekanawidah was so revered man during his lifetime that most of his tribesman did not even utter his name, instead choosing only to call him The Peacemaker.  His story is mythical and has left a strong legacy in the area that today is upstate New York and lower Canada.   

 

The land of the Iroquois confederacy, generally speaking, includes the area to the South of Lake Ontario and to the east of Lake Erie.  Because these people recorded history through oral traditions instead of written ones, the dates are difficult for us to really pinpoint.  The Peacemaker likely dates back to the 12th century.  

 

That is much earlier than where our English literature textbooks start, obviously, since English wasn’t spoken by indigenous peoples.  Interestingly enough, though, the first piece of literature included in the American literature textbook is one of the the Iroquois people, that confederation of six tribal nations and the document included in our textbook is the Iroquois Constitution.  I will admit, however, that there is not much by way of explanation, and many years, if not most years, I just skip over it, not trying to be disrespectful, but because I just don’t know enough about it.  Much of the discussion stems around wanting to discuss and debate as to whether the Iroquois constitution influenced the American constitution, and how much credit should be given to this document.  I never felt qualified to speak to that, so I just left it alone, until now.  Today, we will read the exert of the Iroquois Constitution, talk a little bit about the text itself, explore the symbolism that has left its mark on modern American culture and maybe even come up with the answer to that question- does the American constitution  owe a debt to the Iroquois Constitution?   

 

Ha!  That is a terribly loaded question, and not as simple to answer as you might think- as all true history tends to be.  The Congress of the United States says yes, we know that for sure.  In October of 1988 a concurrent resolution passed acknowledging the contribution of the Iroquois confederacy to the formation and development of the United States, but of course, Congress is not a historical body, it’s a political one, so that answer is not a historical answer but a political one.  Historians are not so quick to agree on that answer.  History, for those of us who are honest, is complicated.  It’s messy and sometimes we can’t even really know for sure the details surrounding the creation of anything- things are so inter-tangled.  To illustrate what I mean we need to look no further than the very word Iroquois.  Who are the Iroquois?  Well, they weren’t Iroquois- at least not to them?  That is not an indigenous word at all- the people of Dekanawida were known and are still known as the Haudenosaunee- or the people of the long house.  The document you are referring to is call Gayanesshagowa, or the great law of peace.  It, in its entirety exists only in the Iroquois oral tradition and even though it is still maintained and recited to this day, we would probably not like to read it on the podcast for the simple reason that it takes seven or eight days to recite fully.  It was recorded on wampum belts through wampum symbols that conveyed its meaning.  Hundreds of years after it was created it was translated into English.  The written version was divided into 117 articles.   

 

Oh my, the selection in our textbook is about a page long and written on paper.   

 

 Whether or not the Iroquois constitution influenced the US constitution, although interesting, for my money is not the most interesting and important reason to read and think about it.  The Iroquois confederacy and its constitution is important and distinctive in its own right as a political document.  And this is what I want to highlight, like we said, the Iroquois constitution predates the advent of Europeans to the American continent perhaps by several hundred years.  What that means is that the Iroquois can lay claim to the first constitutional system in this area that today we refer to as the United States of America.  The confederacy of the five and then six nations which we are getting ready to discuss is important and stands alone in its importance for being one of the longest surviving documented confederated governments on planet earth.  For those of us interested in history and politics- that is an incredible distinctive.  It is an amazing document for another reason.  At this same time in Europe we are seeing indigenous peoples of Europe formulate similar documents regarding powersharing starting with the magna carta.  The indigenous people here in this continent, with no connection, and doing the same thing at roughly the same time.    One question that historians often discuss is how societies transitioned from pre-political societies to the emergence of states as we know them today.  The Iroquois confederation provides a documented example of how this transition has occurred and may have occurred in similar fashions all over planet earth.    

 

Okay, gotcha- of course, the culture of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois people is unique and something I actually remember studying as a child at Tayac Elementary school in Prince George’s Country, Maryland in the second grade.   

 

Really, before you moved to Brazil, what do you remember? 

 

Well, the main thing I remember are the long houses.  I think we may have even made some in art class.  If you’ve never heard of long houses, they were these wooden structures where people lived by extended family.  They could be two hundred feet long, were partitioned off by family unit, but had multiple fireplaces where families could gather.  I just remember thinking how fun that sounded.  Interestingly enough, and this is really an aside, my dad and stepmother, Barbara,  have actually slept in a long house.   

 

Where?  For fun? 

 

No, not for fun, they were doing some missionary work with an indigenous people in Malaysia.  And in Malaysia, there are still indigenous people today who live communally in long houses. 

 

That’s incredible.  It’s also interesting that that is one of the things you remember from your early school days?  Did your teacher back then tell you the Iroquois were matriarchal- or run by women- I’m pretty sure you would have hung on to that bit of trivia- In that culture when a man married he left his father’s home and joined the long house of his wife which was run by a senior female.  

 

Gosh.  I don’t remember that.  I bet it was a concealed fact! Ha!    I DO remember the images of those long houses.   

 

 Well, the long houses of the Iroquois were under the supervision of the senior matron.  In Iroquios society, the division of labor was also gender-based- Women did most of the farming, and the men, among other things, were responsible for hunting, fighting and conducting relations with other tribes.  This meant that the men were gone for long period of times from the long house.  The social unit of the Iroquois people was not the nuclear family, like we think of, but was the extended family- a grandmother, her daughters and grandchildren along with their spouses living under a very long extended room.  These family groupings were highly organized into clans and the clans passed down names or something close to what the Europeans would call titles. Although this is somewhat of a simplification, these titles or names are what they called sachems.  We don’t have an equivalent of a sachem in the modern American context, but it is an extremely important role in the Iroquois confederacy.   A sachem was a man, specifically selected to represent his people and whose role was in help establishing peace among the other nations.   

 

Is it what we call a chief? 

 

Well, it’s not the same thing as a chief, although the European settlers really got confused and used that term quite a bit for lack of a better alternative.   The sachem is a leadership role of great importance- maybe you could see it as something like what the British have in the House of Lords, but since we didn’t adopt anything similar in American government,  it is kind of difficult for us to relate to.  But all of that to say, the people of the long house were literally people who lived in long houses, and at the basic level were governed by women, but they took this picture of a long house, the physical place where they lived,  and use it to symbolize a confederacy between peoples who shared a similar language and way of life.  This confederacy was united politically through a council of 50 men called sachems who were selected by the various nations through various means.  The series of events that led to this organization have been handed down orally and produced an oral document- documented visually through symbols.   

 

 

Which brings us to the origin story of the Peacemaker.  Oral tradition holds that the various clans  living in this area around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie were engaged in constant warfare, which by everything that I read was brutal, bloody, ruthless and apparently never-ending.  According to oral tradition, and there are various accounts obviously, but I’ll just pick one with the admission that details are very different if you read a different account.  But, it comes down to a specific woman and her mother who was forced to flee for their lives during one of these  attacks from one of these warring groups.  Once they were away to safety, this woman realized she was pregnant which made no sense to her because she was still a virgin.  She had a dream and in her dream a spirit told her the child in her womb had been chosen by the Creator to bring a message of peace to his people.  This woman raised her son, and starting in his childhood, the young man taught words of kindness, understanding, love and respect.  He called his people to return to the ways of their Creator.  The people listened to him, and he became known as the Peacemaker.  After he grew up, he turned his attention to other peoples who needed to hear this message of peace.  He carved a canoe out of white stone- and his mother and grandmother were shocked to see that it floated down the river.  The peacemaker brought his message first to the Mohawks and then to the Oneida and then to the Cayuga and the Seneca.  The Seneca were reluctant to trust him.  The Peacemaker found two warriors who were willing to support him.  One of those helpers we today call Hiawatha.  Longfellow, another American poet, later borrowed that name for a poem by that same name, but not about the real Hiawatha which is confusing.   The other warrior many think was a woman named Jikonsaseh. In many versions of this story, The Peacemaker has a speech impediment and Hiawatha is the main preacher speaking the words of the prophet.  But in all the versions this group traveled up and down the shores of Lake Erie, Ontarios and the St Laurence river preaching and teaching about peace.  At one point, this group united a special council on Onodaga Lake where representatives from other nations were gathering.  One obstacle they had was in confronting a sorcerer, who lived on the lake and inspired a lot of fear.  In various versions he had snakes as hair.  He also was truly evil to the point that he had Hiawatha’s three daughters killed.  There’s a lot to the story, but it comes down to the idea that Hiawatha forgave the sorcerer, and this incredible act enabled the peace to move forward.  The Peacemaker brought in the Sorcerer to be a central chief in the peace process.  The sorcerer became a positive part of the system and  became the council’s fire keeper- going back to the long house symbolism we know how important this role is, the fires in the long houses are places where people come together and are important features of the culture.  The sorcerer also became the keeper of the wampum which is that string of beads where the constitution would eventually be recorded.  With eleven representatives in place at the grand council, the Peacemaker created the laws of the great Peace- at some point after this, the Seneca people joined the council- the original confederacy was formed from these five nations- 50 sechems would sit as members of the council and would meet at Onnadaga which was the center of the confederacy.  In order to symbolize this peace the Peacemaker chose a white pine tree.  The members buried their weapons under the tree agreeing to never use them again against each other.  On top of the tree was an eagle which would act as a guardian of the peace.  

 

 The idea was the nations were now going to be a single long house.  If you look at a map, you can see they nations align vertically just that way- with the Seneca to the West and the Mohawk nation on the far east.  The Mohawks would be the Eastern door to the confederacy and the Seneca would be the keepers of the West.  They were now the Hodenausaunee, or the people of the long house- the long house being the metaphor for the nation.  The laws governing the confederacy were very complex and highly sophisticated.  The Mohawks were the first among equals- the preeminent tribe.  You have to remember that the individual people groups were not equal in size or strength, so negotiations were not simplistic.  We also have to remember that the confederacy was designed to keep peace BETWEEN the nations, not within the different nations.  They weren’t interested in building a nation-state like we think of today.  Each nation governed itself separately.  The council was not telling families how to interact with each other within the individual nations.   

 

So, we are talking about a confederacy.  This is not a democracy like we think of today with one person, one vote- that sort of thing.  But the confederacy held for centuries, and actually, it’s STILL in place today and to this day representatives of the whole confederacy still meet and gather around a single council fire to discuss issues that affect the nations.  Let’s read the beginning words.  It’s kind of a famous introduction.  You have to remember that this is a translation, so as with all poetry that is translated,  it may sound slightly stilted and not as natural as it would if we were able to understand the original words in its original context.  Christy, let’s read Dkanawideh’s words about the tree of the Great Peace. 

 

Read from the xeroxed copy.  

 

I want to point out, and I don’t know if this is interesting for English students, but it’s very interesting to history people, the organic metaphor is not original to any one people group.  Making metaphors of nature is used by various traditional societies.  That is not what is distinctive here although it is beautiful and symbolic.  But the Iroquois confederation in its second provision contains a different and remarkable idea stating that individuals and nations outside the confederation may trace their roots to the great tree and thereby come under the shelter of the confederation- not by joining the culture but by making a promise to obey the wishes of the  confederate council.  This is explicitly political language and moves this document from a shared myth to a constitution that allows for future members to join sheerly on political grounds- not cultural grounds- that’s a huge shift and very exciting really.  What we see here is a blend of traditional prepolitical structures with political institutions like we are accustomed to today.  It’s really amazing.   

 

In other words, you could be of a different people group and still be a member without converting to the culture. 

 

That’s it exactly- which of course what we have in the Unisted States today- hundreds of cultures attempting to live together with a political agreement, not requiring any group to convert to a different culture.  It’s a difficult thing to manage.  Let’s read Deganawidah’s last Message- it’s dated by most scholars to be around 1450 AD.   

 

From xerox sheet 

 

 

Wow, the language is very optimistic and considering the dates, and obviously the document worked.  Even if you line this up next to colonial history which didn’t begin until 1776, if you start the beginning with Continental Congresses.  So, Garry, getting back to the controversy, is there any agreement at all as to the question of if the Founding Fathers of the American Constitution, as we call them, studied the Iroquois constitution and used it to form the basis  of the US one?  I can see that it is representative, but we don’t sechems.   

 

Sure, there’s not total agreement.  You have to remember, and this of course, is where the history of indigenous people gets very sad, by the time of the American revolution, much of Iroquois population had been decimated by small pox and chicken pox.  The Iroquois nations suffered horrible epidemics starting from the 1630s.  If we just look at one example,  over 60% of the Mohawk population alone died in the first smallpox epidemic in 1634.   

 

Because the numbers of these indigenous peoples were so reduced, by the colonial era, compared to the numbers of British and French settlers, the native peoples were in the minority and the awkward position of trying to navigate neutrality between the European warring opponents.  In other words, they had to take sides- who were they going to support- the French, the British or the Americans. That’s a story within itself.  But to get to the question at hand, we know for sure that Benjamin Franklin was a student of indigenous life, spent time with Iroquois leadership and was an admirer of Chief Canastego, the most prominent of the Iroquois leaders during Franklin’s life.  We also know that another Iroquois leader by the name of Hendrick was asked to provide insight for the colonists as to how the confederation of the Iroquois was structured.  This was in reference to the Albany plan which was one plan presented for consideration in uniting the colonies.  We also know for a fact that in May and June of 1776, 21 Iroquois leaders visited Philadelphia to meet with the Continental Congress, and this was right before, of course the Declaration of Independence.  That’s what we know for sure.   

 

The colonists or James Madison in particular never gave direct credit to any indigenous documents, but there is no doubt the founders were aware of indigenous confederations and how they were structured- not just the Iroquois, actually, there were others, but they were aware that indigenous peoples were using central governments with limited powers to live together in peaceful arrangements on this continent.  We also have been given a few hints, that the Houdenosaunee left an impact on our American heritage through some of our most important American symbols- the first being the most iconic of American symbols- the eagle. 

 

Yes, and I find that very cool- this summer, we, as a family, all went to Dollywood – that’s an amusement park Dolly Parton built up in the Appalachian mountains here in Tennessee.  Anyway, they have bald eagles up there that they keep at the park.  We saw them and they are incredible birds.  Another thing about bald eagles, and I love this uniqueness,  they are indigenous to this continent.  Of course, I didn’t know til I started studying for this podcast that this was the bird chosen by the Iroquois to fly above the tree of peace.  The eagle is known for its amazing eyesight.  This was an important idea for the Iroquois,  the idea being that the Iroquois government should be protective and watchful for its people just like the eagle.   

 

Of course, the eagle isn’t the only symbol used in American iconography.  Deganawida very famously took an arrow and broke it.  He then took two arrows and broke them.  But then he bound five arrows together and illustrated that five arrows could not be broken. The cluster of arrows was to symbolize the strength found in the joining of several nations.  Hendrick illustrated this for the colonists.  One of the delegates is recorded to have said this, “Hendrick used the example the Iroquois used when t heir nations came together: He held up one arrow and broke it, then held up five arrows bound together and showed how they could not be broken.”  If you look at the symbol of the United States, in the left talon of the eagle, you will see 13 arrows held by an eagle.   

 

 

Well, that’s very cool.  I know, just like a soaring eagle, we flew through that story perhaps more quickly than we should have.  The story of the peacemaker, Hiawatha and the Haudenosaunee is way more intricate then what we just discussed.  There is a lot of wisdom in those myths and legends that we would do well to think about.  I know you knew this, but I had never thought of the expression “burying the hatchet” as coming from a famous indigenous document- I certainly didn’t know it had anything to do with Hiawatha’s ability to offer forgiveness and forge a confederacy that would be the basis for one of the oldest working forms of democracy on planet earth.  It’s an amazing legacy, and goes to show, if nothing else, and of course, this is what Whitman was preaching his entire life, that we are all a lot more alike than different.  If we look closely, we will see our paths have intertwined way more than we could ever imagine- and if we choose, even the most divided and hurt among us can forge a future towards peace. And that is a reason to celebrate friendsgiving at any time of year. 

 

Indeed,  we hope you enjoyed listening to this very abbreviated discussion of an incredible document from our continent, an excerpt for the Iroquois constitution.  We also hope if you enjoyed this discussion that you will share about us to your friends and colleagues.  Give us a five star rating on your podcast ap, post this episode on social media and follow us on any of our social media platforms: Instagram, facebook, twitter and Linked in.  Also, don’t forget to check out our materials on howtolovelitpodcast. Com 

 

Peace out 

 

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