Six Nations Democracy

For this blog I reviewed the resource of The Six Nations: Oldest Living Participatory Democracy on Earth which was authored by Bruce E. Johansen, Donald A. Grinde and John Kahionhes Fadden. On this resource page there were excerpts from a book called Exemplar of Liberty written by Grinde and Johansen. The Six Nations included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondagas, Cayuga and Seneca tribes. Eventually the Tuscaroras moved in to the area and became the 6th nation. This is familiar information for most people who grew up in New York State. The new information that I learned had to do with the Six Nations participation and inspiration in the development of the US democracy. The Iroquois Chiefs were invited to the meeting hall of the Continental Congress. There was a speech given indicating that the new nation wanted to maintain its ties to the Iroquois and hoped that they could maintain their friendships. At the end the chiefs asked to give John Hancock an Indian name and they called him "Karanduawn, or the Great Tree". It is unfortunate that this good relationship did not survive as the nation grew. In the present we could learn how to change the mistakes that have been made in our democracy by reviewing the 800 hundred year history of the successful Six Nations.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chief Joseph

Start Blogging (enjoy this exercise - more talking than academic)

M3 - The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)