Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here Back in seventeen
Speaker 1: forty four, colonial leaders from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland met
Speaker 1: with a delegation from what at the time was one
Speaker 1: of the great powers on the North American continent. It
Speaker 1: was a confederation of Native American nations who called themselves
Speaker 1: the hotton O'shanee, although many of us are more familiar
Speaker 1: with their French name, the Iroquois. As recounted in James
Speaker 1: Wilson's book The Earth Shall Weep, A History of Native America,
Speaker 1: the native leader canacid Ego expressed frustration at the colonists
Speaker 1: quarreling with one another. He advised union and better agreement,
Speaker 1: and specifically that they followed the example of the hotton O'shannee,
Speaker 1: who had established a well organized system of self government
Speaker 1: codified in the Great Law of Peace, with both the
Speaker 1: Central Council and checks and balances the protected individual freedoms.
Speaker 1: It's written that he said, we are a powerful confederate.
Speaker 1: See and by observing the same methods our wise forefathers
Speaker 1: have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power. Among
Speaker 1: those in attendance was Benjamin Franklin, who, in Wilson's account,
Speaker 1: took careful notes and later used some of the hotton
Speaker 1: O'shawnee's ideas about government a decade later in a proposal
Speaker 1: for a confederation of the American colonies. The Albany Plan
Speaker 1: championed by Franklin never came to fruition, but the notion
Speaker 1: of the colonies cooperating and governing themselves was a big
Speaker 1: step towards what eventually became the United States of America.
Speaker 1: Over the years, some have argued that we ought to
Speaker 1: give the hotton O'shawnee credit for inspiring the birth of
Speaker 1: the American democracy, and have even suggested that the U. S.
Speaker 1: Constitution and the system of self government that it created
Speaker 1: actually was based on the hotdon O'shawnee Great Law. If
Speaker 1: you poke around the Internet or social media long enough,
Speaker 1: you may even find a meme that claims that the U. S.
Speaker 1: Constitution quote owes its nation of democracy to the Iroquois tribes,
Speaker 1: including freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and separation of
Speaker 1: powers in government. The big difference, the meme notes is that,
Speaker 1: unlike the founding fathers, the Iroquois didn't disenfranchise women and
Speaker 1: people who aren't white. The point about women is clearly true.
Speaker 1: Women are mentioned throughout the Great Law, and in the
Speaker 1: Honno Shawnee system of government, they had the power to
Speaker 1: select chiefs and veto wars. Journalist Jessica Nordell wrote in
Speaker 1: a twenty sixteen Washington Post essay that nineteenth century American
Speaker 1: feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who had Hottonoshawni neighbors
Speaker 1: in upstate New York, were inspired by their notion of
Speaker 1: gender equality. Congress even passed a resolution in acknowledging the
Speaker 1: hotdon O'shawnee contribution to American democracy and noting that quote,
Speaker 1: the original framers of the Constitution, including most notably George
Speaker 1: Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired
Speaker 1: the concepts of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Speaker 1: The resolution also noted that quote. The confederation of the
Speaker 1: original thirteen colonies into one republic was influenced by the
Speaker 1: political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy, as were many
Speaker 1: of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: the consensus among historians seems to be that there's no
Speaker 1: compelling evidence that the founding fathers directly imitated the han
Speaker 1: No Shawnee Great Law when they wrote the U s Constitution.
Speaker 1: The hon No Shawnee system had some significant differences from
Speaker 1: the political system that the former colonists created. For one,
Speaker 1: the hon No Shawnee had hereditary office holders, something that
Speaker 1: more resembled that the English system that the Americans were
Speaker 1: rebelling against. Al We spoke via email with Jack Ray Cove,
Speaker 1: a history and political science professor at Stanford University. He said,
Speaker 1: there are lots of significant and fascinating ways in which
Speaker 1: one can trace the interactions between indigenous and settler populations,
Speaker 1: but the transmission of political ideas, including ideas about democracy,
Speaker 1: is not one of them. The basic fact is that
Speaker 1: the colonists were direct heirs to an extremely rich body
Speaker 1: of political practices and ideas derived from English history, and
Speaker 1: especially from the great controversies of the seventeenth century Stuart era.
Speaker 1: But we also spoke with Charles C. Mann, author of
Speaker 1: the two thousand six book fourteen ninety one New Revelations
Speaker 1: of the Americas Before Columbus. He contends that even if
Speaker 1: the Constitution wasn't actually modeled on the Great Law, the
Speaker 1: Hanno Shawannee still exerted an influence upon the development of
Speaker 1: American democracy. He said, the Great Law codified something that
Speaker 1: was pretty fundamental to han Noshaani culture, which was that
Speaker 1: people are autonomous individuals with the right to decide their
Speaker 1: own lives, and that the authority of the ruler over
Speaker 1: them was limited. And this is a really important part
Speaker 1: of US political culture to this day. I suspect that
Speaker 1: the Constitution was not inspired by the Great Law, but
Speaker 1: that Hannoshani culture, of which the Great Law is one example,
Speaker 1: was influential to what became a US culture in the
Speaker 1: same way that say, African American teenagers and queens are
Speaker 1: influenced by Asian American teenagers of the Wu Tang clan.
Speaker 1: The colonial America's were a much more mixed place than
Speaker 1: we are often taught in school, so this influence is
Speaker 1: to me not surprising. Today's episode was written by Patrick J.
Speaker 1: Tiger and produced by Tyler clay Or. More on this
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