Native American Political Systems
and the Evolution of Democracy:
An Annotated Bibliography


Bruce E. Johansen
Professor of Communication and
Native American Studies
University of Nebraska at Omaha




1995

Books, Scholarly and Specialty Journals

(*) __________. "Iroquois Confederacy." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America: Volume 2. Detroit Gale Research, 1995.

Page 761: "Although disputed by some, there is significant evidence that the Iroquois Confederacy served as a model or inspiration for the U.S. Constitution. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine were well acquainted with the League....The Iroquois form of government...included elements equivalent to the modern political tools of initiative, referendum, and recall." This entry cites the published proceedings of the 1987 Cornell conference on the subject [See Barreiro, ed., 1988].

Alfred, Gerald R. Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors: Kahnawake Mohawk Politics and the Rise of Native Nationalism. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1995.

This political history of the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve near Montreal contains an extensive review of traditional Iroquois political practices in chapter four. On page 78, Alfred calls the Iroquois Confederacy "the first genuine North American federal system." In two footnotes (on pages 196 and 197), Alfred directs readers to Exemplar of Liberty [1991] and Forgotten Founders [1982] for "a discussion of the [Iroquois] Confederacy in relation to its representation of democracy, and its influence on later attempts at the design of federal systems."

(*) Bruchac, Joseph, ed. New Voices From the Longhouse. Greenfield, N.Y.: Greenfield Press, 1995.

This collection of poetry, prose stories, and history from contemporary Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) includes a reference (on p. 217) to the examination of the Iroquois role in the development of democracy in Barreiro, ed., Indian Roots of American Democracy [1988, 1992].

Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

This book, which asserts that it is "the first broad coverage of Indian experiences in the American Revolution," briefly raises the "influence" issue on page 298: "In the propaganda of the Revolution, Indian figures and accoutrements frequently symbolized the American cause. One school of thought even maintains that Indian influence was so pervasive among the founding fathers' generation that the League of the Iroquois provided a model for the framing of the United States Constitution....Indian influences endured in the new republic, but the United States had no place for Indian people." Calloway cites Grinde and Johansen, Exemplar of Liberty [1991], and the Johansen-Tooker exchange in Ethnohistory [1990].

(*) Cassidy, James J., Jr. Through Indian Eyes: The Untold Story of Native American Peoples. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Readers Digest Association, 1995.

This large, coffee-table format book uses Native American perspectives as its defining format. On page 148, under the heading "A Model for Union?" the text says that United States democracy had several antecedents, including the Iroquois League. A brief summary then follows, from Canassatego's advice that the colonists unify on an Iroquois model (1744), to the Albany Plan of Union (1754), and parts of the U.S. Constitution that resemble it. The borrowing of the eagle as a national symbol also is noted, along with the symbolism of the arrows.

(*) Clinton, Robert N. "Symposium Rules of the Game: Sovereignty and the Native American Nation: the Dormant Indian Commerce Clause." Connecticut Law Review 27(Summer, 1995), p. 1055.

Clinton, who is Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law at the University of Iowa College of Law (as well as associate justice of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court), surveys the Iroquois role in British and French colonial history. This 47,000-word article contains a detailed treatment of the Albany Congress of 1754, which contains a footnote (#68) about the debate over Franklin's debt to the Iroquois. Clinton cites Grinde and Johansen, Exemplar of Liberty [1991], Johansen, Forgotten Founders [1982, 1987] and Grinde, Iroquois and the Founding of the American Nation [1977] as well as shorter works on both sides of the debate.

Coburn, Joseph, et. al. "American Indians," in Carl A. Grant, ed., Educating for Diversity. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995.

Coburn, et. al. contribute a 30-page essay on American Indians to this "anthology of multicultural voices." In the essay (on p. 239), the authors write: "The U.S. government was heavily influenced by the League of the Iroqois [sic]. Democracy and communist governments were influenced by the 'Village Council' governing practices utilized by the majority of tribes in pre-Columbian America. Forms of this practice survive today."

(*) Deloria, Vine, Jr. "The Western Forum: The Struggle for Authority." Journal of the West 34:3(July, 1995), pp. 3-4.

Deloria is responding to concerns expressed by Francis Paul Prucha in the January, 1995 issue of Journal of the West that a "gap" is emerging and widening between "solid historical accounts and the pseudohistorical or mythical accounts adopted by many Indians and their white advocates." Instead, writes Deloria, "The truth is that the discipline of historical writing is beginning to move from its centuries-long simplistic doctrinal interpretation of history as a good white man-bad Indian scenario." Deloria believes that "The real issue underlying Prucha's complaint is based on authority and status. His examples of revisionist, and presumably inaccurate, history and his descriptive language illustrate what I would call the pitiful complaint and anguish of the old orthodoxy." Deloria then outlines the idea that the Iroquois helped shape democratic thought, and says that such ideas have "were not refuted" by Prucha, "They were simply attacked." Deloria continues: "The point that the old school apparently misses is that one of the critical issues faced by the constitutional generation was the distribution of sovereign political powers between the new federal government and the colonies..." The Six Nations had long since resolved this problem, he believes. "...[I]t seems absurd to continue to maintain that the founding fathers choose the course they did out of sheer genius." Deloria scoffs, as well as the belief that "Andrew Jackson was the best friend Indians ever had," and concludes: "Scholars should not worry that pristine historical study is undermined by new ideas or efforts to correct ancient wrongs. That is the nature of continuing scholarship."

(*) Doxtator, Deborah. "Testimony Before the U.S. House of Representatives, Ways & Means Committee," May 1, 1996. In LEXIS.

Doxtator, chairwoman of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, began her testimony on tax reform before the House Ways and Means Committee: "We are a member nation of the Iroquois Confederacy from which this American government learned the concept of a government of, by, and for the people. We are proud that our model of governmental checks and balances, upper and lower houses, and separation of powers became the foundation for the America which we all now enjoy."

D'Souza, Dinesh. The End of Racism. New York: Free Press, 1995.

Part of D'Souza's case that racism has ended rests of what he regards as liberals' "bogus multiculturalism." In this context, he agrees that Native Americans provided general society with potatoes, tomatoes, kayaks, corn, and canoes. He even approves of assertions that the phrase "OK" comes from a Native American language (probably Choctaw). However, D'Souza finds "virtually non-existent" (p. 356) support for the idea that the Iroquois political system helped shape American concepts of democracy. D'Souza cites approvingly work by Temple Anthropology Professor Elisabeth Tooker [1988], but calls her an historian and misspells her first name (as "Elizabeth"). D'Souza references one source in support of the "influence" idea: "Thomas Riley, 'History and Foodstuffs,' National Review, November 19, 1990." A biographical check indicated that Riley is a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois. The purported article does not exist, at least not in National Review, one more indication of D'Souza's incredibly sloppy scholarship.

Edmunds, R. David. "Native Americans, New Voices: American Indian History, 1895-1995." American Historical Review 100:3 (June, 1995), pp. 717-740.

This survey of developments in American history relating to Native Americans during the century since AHR began publishing comments, on page 729, that "Recently, claims by some Native American historians that the Constitution of the United States was modelled after the Iroquois Confederacy have attracted the public's attention and engendered considerable controversy." Edmunds references Exemplar of Liberty [1991], and Exiled in the Land of the Free [1992]. In a footnote, Edmunds writes that "...Grinde and...Johansen argued that the political theories of the 'founding fathers' were heavily influenced by their familiarity with the political structure of the Iroquois Confederacy. Their assertions have created considerable debate, and have attracted both the media, the public, and the Congress [sic]."

(*) Foster, Michael K. [Review of Woodbury, Hanni, Concerning the League...] American Anthropologist 97:3(1995), pp. 582-583.

Foster, who works with the Canadian Museum of Civilization, writes in his review of Woodbury's rendition of John Arthur Gibson's account of the Great Law of Peace that given "events of the colonial period...down to the present-day heated debate over the historical influences of the Great Law of Peace on the American constitution...it is surprising that no adequate version of the [Iroquois] League Tradition existed in print before Concerning the League..."

(*) Fox, Charles J. and Hugh T. Miller. Postmodern Public Administration: Toward Discourse. Thousand Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995.

On page 67, discussing "the Foundations of Constitutionalism," Fox and Miller write: "At an intellectual level, anything that attempts to pass itself off, in postmodern conditions, as canonical (like the founding of a constitution or some distant social contract) will be debunked, deconstructed, and dismissed." Fox and Miller believe that "the radical nominalism of postmodernism is singularly hostile to claims of universality....If constitutionalists assert one version of the founding, the Iroquois can provide a different version of how the founding came to be. (That is to say, what white Americans take to be the founding was nothing but a plagiarized version of the Iroquois governance structure.)"

(*) Gitlin, Todd. The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked by Culture Wars. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.

On pp. 201-202, Gitlin brings Iroquois precedents into a discussion of history as seen from various points of view, as expressed in the debate over national standards for the teaching of history. "Pure relativism is brittle....The partisans of fundamental group difference rank their own stories higher than others....To the challengers' eyes [what is being challenged is unclear] the Iroquois Confederacy was the model for the federal system of government enshrined in the Constitution -- although the evidence that the Iroquois system decisively influenced the writing of the Constitution is mixed." In an endnote, Gitlin cites Donald Grinde's chapter in Lyons, Exiled in the Land of the Free [1992], calling the account "sometimes exaggerated."

(*) Grinde, Donald A. Jr. "The Iroquois and the Development of American Government." Historical Reflections 21:2 (Spring, 1995), pp. 301-318.

This is a survey of the "influence" case, drawn largely from Exemplar of Liberty [1991].

Grinde and Bruce E. Johansen. Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Native Lands and People. Santa Fe: Clear Light, 1995.

On page 248, Lummi Jewell Praying Wolf James notes "with irony" that American Indian confederacies and societies influenced the development of democracy in the United States. The irony, says James, is that the same nation justified the "constant taking of Indian rights, natural resources, and lands."

Hauptman, Laurence. Tribes and Tribulations: Misconceptions About American Indians and Their Histories. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.

This book contains a chapter (the third) titled "Speculations on the Constitution," in which Hauptman rues the fact that the "Trolls" have been unable to crush the pervasive "misconception" that the Iroquois and other Native American confederations helped shape democracy. "Despite the highly speculative nature of the evidence" [Hauptman reviews very little of it], "this misconception has become a shibboleth," writes the author, citing the U.S. Senate resolution of 1988 supporting the idea. Hauptman speculates that the Iroquois created oral history to assert that key ideas were borrowed from them. He concentrates mainly on James Wilson, arguing that he was too materialistic and Euro-centric to appreciate the Iroquois example. As he makes his case, Hauptman ignores this quote from Wilson at the Constitutional convention: "The British government cannot be our model. We have no materials for a similar one. Our manners, our laws, the abolition of entails and primogeniture, the whole genius of the people are opposed to it." This book cites Grinde and Johansen, Exemplar of Liberty [1991], Grinde [1977], Johansen [1982, 1987], Exiled in the Land of the Free [1992], and other proponents of "influence."

Hirschfelder, Arlene, ed. Native Heritage: Personal Accounts by American Indians, Past and Present. New York: MacMillan, 1995.

On pages 165 and 166 of this anthology, a statement by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, a Pauite, describes her peoples' decision-making processes, and says, "We have a republic as well as you. The council-tent is our Congress, and any anybody can speak who has anything to say, women and all....If women could go into Congress, I think justice would be done to the Indians." This comment was originally published in Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1883.

Howard, Jean, with Margaret Rubin. Manual for the Peacemaker. Wheaton, Illinois: Quest Books, 1995

This book traces the story of Deganawidah and Hiawatha. and includes exercises designed to make the Peacemaker's teachings useful to all. In its introduction (on pp. xxii and xxiii), Manual for the Peacemaker discusses ways in which Iroquois political thought helped shape that of Franklin, Jefferson, and other founders of the United States, as well as French and British philosophers. Howard quotes from Johansen, Forgotten Founders [1982, 1987] and Felix Cohen, "Americanizing the White Man" [1952].

(*) Jaimes-Guerrero, M. A. "Shifting Paradigms for an Anti-colonialist Discourse: Afterword." Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques 21:2(Spring, 1995), pp. 385-391.

The author surveys ways in which "the contemporary United States continues to subjugate the traditional, indigenous peoples within its borders" (p. 386). On page 387, the "influence" issue is raised: "Eurocentric scholarship consistently discounts and trivializes indigenous accomplishments, perpetuating stereotypes of 'primitive' peoples and cultures who failed to attain European 'standards' in agriculture, engineering, pharmacology, metallurgy, and religion. In a similar fashion, there is a reluctance to acknowledge the contribution of indigenous democracy, particularly that of the Iroquois Confederacy, to American governance. Only recently has the Native scholar Donald Grinde[,] working with Bruce Johansen [,] successfully brought this matter to public attention." Exemplar of Liberty (1991), Grinde's Iroquois and the Founding of the American Nation (1977) and Johansen's Forgotten Founders (1982, 1987) are cited in a footnote.

Joseph, James A. Remaking America: How the Benevolent Traditions of Many Cultures Are Transforming Our National Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1995.

Joseph begins the first page of his first chapter by quoting from Exemplar of Liberty [1991]: "The native peoples lived in confederations so subtle, so nearly invisible, as to be an attractive alternative to monarchy's overbearing hand." The author then writes, on p. 23: "The advanced democratic practices of the Iroquois, for example, fitted very well with the abstract principles of democracy already forming in the minds of the European settlers." On pp. 25-26, Joseph cites Karl Marx on Iroquois governance, as well as Benjamin Franklin and Tom Paine. In addition to Exemplar, he cites Weatherford, Indian Givers [1988]. Joseph is president and chief executive officer of the Council on Foundations, an umbrella group for U.S. charitable foundations. In July, 1995, Joseph was nominated as ambassador to South Africa by President Clinton.

(*) Kickingbird, Kirke. "What's Past is Prologue: The Status and Contemporary Relevance of American Indian Treaties." St. Thomas Law Review 7 (Summer, 1995), p. 603.

Kickingbird is director of the Native American Legal Resource Center and assistant professor at the Oklahoma City University School of Law. He is also a Kiowa. He surveys the role of Indian treaties in United States law, writing that "The concept of an Indian confederation of governments was well-known to the colonial governments along the Atlantic Coast. The most powerful example was the Iroquois Confederacy which Benjamin Franklin suggested as a model for colonial alliance at the Albany Conference in 1754." Kickingbird then quotes Canasatego at Lancaster in 1744 advising colonial representatives to form a union on an Iroquois model.

(*) Lewis, David Rich. [Review, Lyons, et. al., Exiled in the Land of the Free. Journal of the West 34:3(July, 1995), pp. 121-122.

Lewis finds "little that is new" in Exiled. The idea that the Iroquois had an impact on the development of American democracy, he writes, "will remain a 'glass half empty, glass half full' argument based on rather weak evidence..."

(*) Lewis, David Rich. "The Native Americans." [Video Review] American Historical Review 100:4 (1995), p. 1200.

This review of the Ted Turner series "The Native Americans" mentions that in the first segment, "The Broken Chain," "John Mohawk (Seneca) broaches the subject of Iroquois antecedents to American republicanism."

Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me. New York: The New Press, 1995.

Loewen spent a year at the Smithsonian surveying the 12 leading high-school history textbooks, and concluded that none of them make history interesting. He sets out to do that in Lies My Teacher Told Me. One of the themes that he describes (asserting that conventional histories usually ignore it) is "the influence of the Iroquois' system of government on the framers of the Constitution." [review, San Francisco Chronicle, below]. Loewen devotes Chapter 4 to portrayals of Indians in high-school texts, calling them "the most lied-about subset of our population." (p. 92) Over the course of this chapter, he devotes considerable space to the historical circumstances that initiated Iroquois influence of U.S. political institutions; in a footnote (p. 328), Loewen takes issue with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s argument in Disuniting of America (1992) that Europe was "also the source -- the unique source -- of those liberating ideas of individual liberty." Comments Loewen: "He offers no evidence, only assertion, for this claim, and apparently does not know of Europe's astonishment not only at Native American liberty but also at religious freedom in China And Turkey." Loewen says that when Spain expelled the Moors in 1492, Turkey offered them sanctuary. On Native American influence, this book cites several authors who have written or edited books and articles on the subject, among them Barreiro, Burton, Grinde, Johansen, and Weatherford.

Mac Donald, Heather. "The Sobol Report: Multiculturalism Triumphant." in Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball. Against the Grain: The New Criterion on Art and Intellect at the End of the Twentieth Century. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1995.

In this collection of essays from the neo-conservative journal The New Criterion, Mac Donald decries the Sobol Report ("The Curriculum of Inclusion") in New York State as a product of racial (mainly black) politics, resulting in the destruction of historical standards. She simplifies the thrust of multiculturalism to a banal slogan: "Hey hey, ho, ho, western culture's gotta go!" Along the way, she argues, by the time the multiculturalists have replaced books with video tapes and African artifacts in schools, "if the multiculturalists amass enough power, they could find not just Iroquois but Egyptian influence on the Constitution." This is an aside in a longer case against Martin Bernal's Black Athena.

Magill Ready Reference: American Indians. Anaheim, CA: Salem Press, 1995.

The Iroquois political system is examined in a lengthy entry on "Native American governance" (tentative title), by Johansen.

(*) McDougald, Dana. [Review of videotape, "America's Great Indian Nations."] School Library Journal, August, 1995, p. 63.

The Iroquois are one of six Native American nations examined in this hour-long video treatment for grades seven and later. McDougald says in this review that "Their great law of peace attracted the attention of American colonists who were forging their own new country. It is believed that much of our Constitution is based upon that of the Iroquois nation."

(*) Means, Russell. Where White Men Fear to Tread. New York: St. Martins, 1995.

On page 370 of this autobiography, Means discusses Iroquois notions of sovereignty: "They have endured for more than eight centuries....The U.S. Constitution was patterned after the code of their Confederacy."

(*) Merriam, Louise A. and James W. Oberly. United States History: A Bibliography of the New Writings on American History. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1995.

This bibliography lists Exemplar of Liberty [1991] in its section on "The Constitution and its Interpretation."

(*) Miller, Lee, ed. From the Heart: Voices of the American Indian. New York: Knopf, 1995.

On page 100, this collection of quotations from Native American authors and orators quotes Cannassatego's advice at the Lancaster Treaty Council that the colonists should unite in a way similar to that of the Iroquois Confederation.

Mintz, Steven. "A Guide to Recent Books in Native American History." American Indian Quarterly 19:1 (Winter, 1995), pp. 91-142.

Forgotten Founders [1982, 1987], Exemplar of Liberty [1991] and Exiled in the Land of the Free [1992] are among the books listed in this bibliography of Native American history. The use of "recent" here is relative; some of the cited titles were published as early as 1948.

(*) Nies, Judith. [Review, Lyons, et al., Exiled in the Land of the Free, 1992]. Harvard Review 9 (Fall, 1995), n.p.

Nies agrees with Rodney Smolla's review in the New York Times [1992] that this book's great strength is that "it forcefully injects many of the most vexing questions about our constitutional past into our present discourse." "The case for the Iroquois influence on the shape of the U.S. Constitution is one part of the story," concludes Nies,. "The use of the Constitution to deprive Indians of the[ir] lands and their rights...is another."

(*) Pommersheim, Frank. Braid of Feathers: American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

On page 122, Pommersheim excerpts from President Bill Clinton's speech to tribal leaders May 2, 1994 which mentions Native American democratic traditions that existed before the Constitution was proposed. For a text, see "Francis, Lee," above, 1996. Pommersheim is quoting from the B.I.A. Indian News Week-in-Review, May 13, 1994, p. 1.

(*) Powless, Robert E. "Iroquois Indians." World Book Encyclopedia: Volume 10. Chicago: World Book, Inc., 1995.

In a brief entry on the Iroquois (p. 455), Powless notes that "the confederation of states that became the United States of America may have been patterned after the League."

(*) Prucha, Francis Paul. "The Challenge of Indian History." The Journal of the West 34:1(January, 1995), pp. 3-4.

Prucha is worried that "The gap is widening, I fear, between solid historical accounts and the pseudohistorical or mythical accounts adopted and proclaimed by many Indians and their white advocates....A good example, which has been around from [sic] some years, is the effort to make the Iroquois Confederacy the [sic] model for the United States Constitution and American democratic government. Books and articles advancing these claims have appeared, and they have been refuted by knowledgeable scholars...but the idea continues to get support....The differences between the Iroquois League and the Constitution are numerous and significant, but even granting similarities, to conclude that one was the model for the other is a simple post hoc ergo hoc propter hoc fallacy." Vine Deloria, Jr.'s rebuttal to this opinion piece appeared in the July, 1995 issue of Journal of the West and is summarized above.

(*) Shenandoah, Joanne and Diane. Education at the Ordway: Teacher Information Packet. St. Paul, Minn.: Ordway Music Theatre, 1995.

This is a lesson plan for a curriculum on Iroquois arts, society, and culture prepared by the Ordway Music Theatre, St. Paul, Minn., the state of Minnesota's largest arts organization. The curriculum was developed in conjunction with a performance by Joanne and Diane Shenandoah, who are Oneida, at the Ordway. On page 9, the curriculum says that "The Great Law was studied by Benjamin Franklin. He was so impressed by the Iroquois form of government that...he called on the delegates to unite and emulate the Iroquois League." The curriculum cites Grinde, Iroquois and the Founding of the American Nation in its bibliography.

(*) Spicer, Michael W. [Review of Fox and Miller, Postmodern Public Administration, 1995] American Review of Public Administration 26:2(June, 1996), p. 251.

In reviewing Fox and Miller's book, Spicer disagrees with their assertion that that "The [U.S.] Constitution was a plagiarized version of the Iroquois government structure."

(*) Valencia-Weber, Gloria and Christine P. Zuni. "Symposium: Women's Rights as International Human Rights: Domestic Violence and Tribal Protection of Indigenous Women in the United States." St. John's Law Review 69, at p. 69.

Valencia-Weber, an associate professor in the University of New Mexico Law School, and Zuni, a visiting assistant professor at the same school, survey the treatment of women in indigenous cultures, including the Iroquois, and mention the role of the Iroquois in shaping democracy, citing Exiled in the Land of the Free (1992).

Volokh, Alexander. "The Green Crusade: Rethinking the Roots of Environmentalism." [book review] Reason, 26:10 (March, 1995), p. 62.

Volokh belittles Peter Marshall's Nature's Web: Rethinking Our Place on Earth [1994], which posits the Native American belief that human beings are part of a web of life in which all things share spiritual connection. He smirks as he lists Marshall's "favorite philosophers...the Taoists, the Iroquois, and Immanuel Kant." Volokh argues, reductio ad absurdum, that at least Marshall stops short of advocating "stones' rights."

Wagner, Sally Roesch. "Is Equality Indigenous? The Untold Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists." On the Issues, Winter, 1996, pp. 21-25.

How did nineteenth-century feminists Matilda Joslyn Gage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton arrive at their vision of a world in which relations between the sexes would be transformed? They didn't get it from the patriarchal society in which they lived, Wagner argues. Instead, all three feminists lived in Upstate New York and studied the matrilineal society of the Iroquois Confederacy. Wagner traces the ways in which the lives of Iroquois women affected the world views of these three important feminists.

(*) Wiessner, Siegfried. "American Indian Treaties and Modern International Law." St. Thomas Law Review 7(Summer, 1995), p. 567.

Wiessner, a profesor in the St. Thomas University School of Law, mentions Iroquois constitutional democracy, citing Exiled in the Land of the Free (1992) and Greg Schaaf, "From the Great Law of Peace to the Constitution of the United States: A Revision of America's Democratic Roots." American Indian Law Review 14 (1989), p. 323.

(*) Wilbur, C. Keith, M.D. The Woodlands Indians. Old Saybrook, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 1995.

This children's book contains a short description of the Iroquois Confederacy. According to Wilbur, "Many believe that the federal plan was modelled after this alliance." (p. 69)

(*) Wilson, Gail Hamlin, Associate Editor. Dictionary of Indian Tribes of the Americas. Newport Beach, CA; American Indian Publishing, 1995.

In Vol. II, p. 515 of this three-volume encyclopedia, the Iroquois Confederacy's founding and operations are described at length, concluding with this comment: "In 1754...Benjamin Franklin's Articles of Union [sic] are said to be based on the constitution of the Confederacy." This essay also describes Franklin's 1751 letter to his printing partner James Parker advising emulation of the "Six nations of ignorant savages...[whose] union...has subsisted ages..."

(*) Weaver, Jace. "Original Simplicities and Present Complexities: Reinhold Niebuhr, Ethnocentricism, and the Myth of American Exceptionalism." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 63:2(Summer, 1995), pp. 231-247.

Weaver uses the works of Reinhold Niebuhr to critique the historical notion that the United States has a divine mission, or "manifest destiny" to spread its democratic traditions around the world. While Niebuhr himself criticized many aspects of the United States' imperialistic frame of mind, Weaver finds that he turned a rather blind eye to the histories of Native Americans, to the point of speculating "whether non-European peoples are capable of realizing that norm [of liberal democracy]." In a footnote on page 241, Weaver observes that Niebuhr ignored the fact that many Native American societies "had highly developed democratic institutions, some of which influenced the founders of the Republic." Exemplar of Liberty (1991) is referenced.

(*) Wood, Gordon S. "A Century of Writing Early American History -- Then and Now Compared, or How Henry Adams Got it Wrong." American Historical Review 100:3 (June, 1995), pp. 678-696.

Gordon Wood concludes a wide-ranging survey of historical writing in the century since the founding of the American Historical Review (in 1895) by describing a late-twentieth century explosion in writing by and about American Indians. "But some anthropologists [sic] have gone further and have become determined to show that the Indians made significant contributions to America's political institutions, including the idea of federalism and the making of the Constitution....The squabble recently created by this tracing of supposed Indian influence on American democracy demonstrates that the desire to discover the roots of the United States still runs strong...and that early American history is as important and vital to people today as it was a hundred years ago." Johansen's exchange with Tooker in Ethnohistory (1990) is cited, with Lyons, et. al., Exiled in the Land of the Free (1992).

Newspaper and Magazine Articles

(*) __________. "Cyberguide." Netguide, September 1, 1995, p. 107.

This is a summary of five "cybershops," one of which is called "The '60s Trading Post for the '90s." The article describes this cybershop as a counter-culture marketplace, "where the Freak Flag still flies." Along with merchandise, this web site (http://attitude.wwa.com/) delivers text files such as "The Secrets of the Drug War," and "The Iroquois Nation Constitution and the Declaration of Independence."

(*) __________. "Science Instructor Wins Honor." Dallas Morning News, April 28, 1995, p. 2-K.

At the Plano Independent School District Elementary History Fair, in the Fifth Grade, Teresa Nocella of Christie School won first prize for her essay, "The Great Law of Peace vs. the U.S. Constitution."

(*) __________. "Oneida Film: Indian Money Tells the Tale." Minneapolis Star-Tribune, November 23, 1995, p. 30-A.

This piece announces that the Oneida nation (of Wisconsin) is planning to spend some of its casino profits to stake a feature film about Dolly Cobus (a.k.a. Polly Cooper), George Washington's cook. The Oneidas supplied Washington's troops at Valley Forge with substantial amounts of food. The article says that "The Oneidas are right to want other Americans to recognize the distinctive Oneida experience -- that they were patriots during the Revolutionary War, [and] that the American Constitution may well incorporate ideas from the governing principles of the Iroquois Confederacy of which the Oneida were [sic] members."

Ackerman, Todd. "Being Creative About Others' Creativity; University of Houston Professor John Lienhard celebrates the Human Side of Technology..." Houston Chronicle, March 12, 1995, p. A-33.

Lienhard is known as the host of an eclectic National Public Radio program "The Engines of our Ingenuity," which recently celebrated its 1,000th broadcast. Lienhard, a professor of engineering, mastered a stutter to broadcast his program, which includes a wide range of subject matter. He broadcasts over 30 NPR affiliates nationwide. The article lists a number of segment titles. "...Another dealt with what the U.S. Constitution owes to the political system of the Iroquois nation....the transcript of [this segment] is the most requested Lienhard episode to date."

Barreiro, Jose. "Bigotshtick: Rush Limbaugh on Indians." Native Americas, Fall, 1995, pp. 40-43.

Barreiro, editor in chief of Native Americas, concludes an analysis of Rush Limbaugh's anti-Indian rhetoric: "It may be wise to keep watch on the bigoted views of Rush Limbaugh. Because he serves as a barometer of the national climate, familiarity with the points of attack can be useful. But remember also this truth: Native Americans -- Limbaugh's so-called savages -- carried out a prescribed protocol of participatory democracy....This style of governance spawned confederacies and produced a palpable freedom, a shared experience that inspired colonial leaders, and that is more "of America" than Rush Limbaugh, from his glass-enclosed, push-button, overblown, self-aggrandizing world will ever be."

Bradley, Bill. "Democracy's 'Third Leg.' Christian Science Monitor, February 27, 1995.

In an opinion column, the former basketball star and current Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey, calls for increased citizen activism. He deplores the fact that money plays such a large role in access to today's political arena. "From the Longhouse of the Iroquois to the general store of de Tocqueville's America, to the Chautauquas...Americans have always had places where they could come together and deliberate their common future." This column was excerpted from a speech by Bradley at the National Press Club on Feb. 9.

Britton, Bonnie. "'Indian' Out of the 'Cupboard,' Into Motivation." Indianapolis Star, July 21, 1995, p. E-1.

Litefoot, a 26-year-old member of the Cherokee Nation, plays Little Bear, an Onondaga who is taken from 1761 to the present in the movie "The Indian in the Cupboard." Litefoot, who calls himself the "first Native American rap artist/motivator," is described in this interview as "fiercely devoted to promoting cultural identity and awareness among young Native Americans." Britton writes that "...He's no fan of Custer (a punk) or George Washington (an Indian killer) or Benjamin Franklin, who he says plagiarized from the Iroquois Confederacy 'and put it in the Constitution.'" The "influence" issue also is mentioned briefly in the script of the movie.

D'Souza, Dinesh. "Multicultural Lies My Teacher Taught Me." Arizona Republic [Phoenix], Perspective, September 24, 1995, p. F-1.

D'Souza, author of The End of Racism [1995], writes that assertions of Iroquois "as founding fathers" is an exercise in "misrepresentation, bordering on falsehood" and "bogus multiculturalism." He makes the same case with reference to assertions that the "three-fifths" clause in the Constitution was a dehumanization of black slaves. On "influence," D'Souza cites Alvin Josephy, Jr. and Jack Weatherford in support, and "Historian Elizabeth Tooker" (he means anthropologist Elisabeth Tooker) in opposition. He argues that Tooker limits the case to one quote (Franklin's 1751 letter to his printing partner James Parker), which she does not, as he tries to simplify the issue to absurdity, a common tactic of conservative critics.

(*) Davidson, Nicholas. "Was Socrates a Plagiarist?" National Review 43:3(Feb. 25, 1991), p. 45.

This piece is mainly a ridiculing of Afriocentrism, but it begins: "Shakespeare and Locke are non-gratae at Stanford; New York schoolchildren learn that the Iroquois were the real source of the Constitution. Multiculturalism is on the march."

(*) Forrest, Elisibeth. "Times Slams Admiral Jeremy Boorda For Giving Credit Where Credit is Due." Washington Times, November 8, 1995, p. A-18.

In a letter to the editor, Forrest, who lives in Alexandria, Va., takes issue with an item in the Times editorial-page column "Inside the Beltway" (October 26, 1995), which criticized Admiral Jeremy Boorda, chief of naval operations, for sending a message to all commands "to honor the North American Indian's contribution to the form of government that we practice today." In "Inside the Beltway," an unnamed "senior veteran" is quoted as saying that this is an example of "the silly season of PC [politically correct] admirals," making him wonder "if I should laugh or cry." Forrest writes that Boorda said in his message that "concepts such as freedom of speech, the separation of powers in government, and the balance of power within government were patterned after the political systems of our Native American Indian nations." "Instead of mocking Adm. Boorda," writes Forrest, "this 'senior veteran' might remember that the great statesman Benjamin Franklin in 1754 wrote: 'It would be a strange thing if six nations of ignorant savages..." The statement was actually made by Franklin in 1751, in a letter to his printing partner James Parker.

George, Doug (Kanentiio). "Iroquois Have Good Reason to See Positives in Fourth of July." Syracuse Herald-American, July 2, 1995.

"We Iroquois have mixed feelings regarding this day," George says of the Fourth of July. "We are concerned that the lessons in democracy our ancestors taught the Founding Fathers have not yet been fully realized." George notes the impact of the Iroquois at the Albany Congress of 1754, and writes: "It is now well established that Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, George Washington, John Adams, and James Monroe studied the Iroquois manner of government in order to mine its concepts for their own use." Iroquois feelings about the Fourth are mixed because George Washington's armies devastated lands of those who sided with the British in the American Revolution.

(*) Griffin-Pierce, Trudy. Encyclopedia of Native America. New York: Viking, 1995.

This children's encyclopedia, for ages 10 and up, notes that the Six Nations League of the Iroquois influenced Benjamin Franklin's conception of the Constitution. On page 32, Griffin-Pierce writes: "The League of the Iroquois was probably the most successful tribal alliance of any kind, and its principles greatly influenced the founding fathers of the United States. Benjamin Franklin...drew direct inspiration from the Iroquois League for the Albany Plan of Union..." She continues, concluding this book's 10-page section on the Iroquois, "To European and American philosophers, as well as colonial leaders, the League represented the more just and humane forms of government that they had been seeking.. The essence of the League...continues today to guide such organizations as the United Nations."

Huntington, Richard. "A View of the World from an Iroquois Perspective." Buffalo News, January 11, 1995, Lifestyles, p. 7.

Huntington, the News' art critic, reviews a show by 24 Iroquois artists at Niagara University. He begins the review by noting that the United States adopted the eagle which soars overhead the Iroquois Great Tree of Peace "as its symbol for freedom and democracy."

(*) Iglesias, David Claudio. "Video/Audio Reviews." Native Peoples, Fall/Winter, 1995, p. 84.

In a review of "A History of Native Americans" (Schlesinger Video Productions, 1994), a half-hour video for children, the reviewer says that "It covers the influence of the democratic Iroquois Confederacy on the nascent American political system."

Johansen, Bruce E. "Dating the Iroquois Confederacy." Akwesasne Notes, New Series 1:3 & 4 (Fall, 1995) pp. 62-63.

This article describes work done by Barbara Mann, a graduate student at Toledo University, and Jerry Fields, an astronomer, which indicates that the Iroquois Confederacy was founded in 1142 A. D., three centuries before the contemporary scholarly consensus. The date is based on the occurrence of a total solar eclipse -- a "sign in the sky" -- after which the Senecas became the last of the five nations to adopt the Great Peace offered by Deganawidah (the Peacemaker) and Aionwantha (Hiawatha). The article notes that the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) may be the oldest democracy in the world, and that the Confederacy has been called a forerunner of United States institutions of representative democracy. This article was reprinted in the January-February, 1996 edition of Crazy Horse Spirit, the newsletter of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.

(*) Johansen. "Sovereignty Summit." Akwesasne Notes, New Series 1:3 & 4 (Fall, 1995) pp. 78-80.

This description of the Constitutional Sovereignty Summit, held in Washington, D.C., June 22-24, 1995 includes quotations from two presentations by Iroquois faithkeeper Oren Lyons, who described Haudenosaunee governance "and ways in which it shaped the founding of the United States." (p. 79)

(*) Johansen. "Making History is Dirty Business." Nuestro Mundo (Omaha), February 1995, p. 2.

Commentary on some of the grittier intellectual disputes arising over the "influence" issue, particularly those extant between Don Grinde and James Axtell.

Karash, Julius A. "Program Helps Indian Youths." Kansas City Star, August 20, 1995, p. A-1.

This front-page story begins by contrasting the number of Indian-derived names around Kansas City (such as "Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs") with the poverty and neglect of 7,000 Native Americans who live in the urban area. It describes the work of Visible Horizons, which "works to help Indian youths claim their piece of the American Dream and reclaim pride in their heritage." Part of the program is educational, with a purposeful effort to raise students' self-esteem. The article describes a class taught by Carol Lee Sanchez-Allen at the Bader Memorial Christian Church, in which she outlines Native American contributions to American culture, including "that the Iroquois Confederacy's concept of Grand Council influenced Benjamin Franklin's ideas for the U.S. Constitution."

Mackey, Mary. "Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong" [review of James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me]. San Francisco Chronicle, February 12, 1995, p. 3.

May, Pamela. [Review of Awaikta, Selu: Seeking the Corn Mother's Wisdom] Whole Earth Review, June 22, 1995, p. 74.

May describes Awaikta's book as "a potent offering of Native American wisdom." She picks up from Selu a brief account of the Iroquois Great Law of Peace, observing that it was used as "a primary model for the [U. S.] Constitution." May writes that "Benjamin Franklin and his colleagues" studied the Great Law.

(*) McCaslin, John. "Inside the Beltway: the Great Pumpkin Speaks." Washington Times, October 26, 1995, p. A-5.

Columnist McCaslin ridicules Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jeremy Boorda for sending a directive to "all commands on land and sea" honoring Native American contributions to democracy in observance of Native American Heritage Month in November. "And you thought the great genius of our form of government was bequeathed by that race of kings across yonder ocean -- the Magna Carta, the common law, and all that? But it wasn't, according to eminent historian and political scientist Jeremy Boorda, who moonlights as chief of naval operations." Adm. Boorda encouraged all commands to "support programs and exhibits, publish items of interest in command bulletins, and promote maximum participation by military and civilian personnel." McCaslin quotes an unnamed "senior veteran" as calling this the silly season of politically correct admirals. The veteran is quoted as saying "I don't know whether to laugh or cry."

"Mohawks Look at Constitution," Associated Press in Plattsburgh [New York] Press-Republican, April 8, 1995.

In the context of a discussion of a new written constitution for Akwesasne Mohawks under United States jurisdiction, P. J. Herne, acting coordinator of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Courts Program, is quoted as saying: "There's a long-standing debate in academia [as to] whether the U.S. Constitution is based on Iroquois democracy." Ironically, the "elective" system was created two centuries ago by New York State to replace the original Mohawk council, which still operates at Akwesasne. Akwesasne Mohawk John Kahionhes Fadden, who supplied this piece, commented: "These 'elective' Mohawks appear blinded to the fact that they already have a constitution -- Kaianerekowa [The Great Law of Peace]."

Nizalowski, John. "Book Examines Indian Influences on America." Telluride Times-Journal, July 13-19, 1995, p. 28.

In his book review column "Now Read This!" Nizalowski notes that the theme of Iroquois influence on democracy permeates Lyons, et. al. Exiled in the Land of the Free [1992].

Nolan, Maureen. "Iroquois Women Serve as Models." Syracuse Post-Standard, April 8, 1995, p. B-3.

This article surveys the matriarchal nature of traditional Iroquois society, and provides evidence that nineteenth century feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage used Iroquois examples in their critique of patriarchy. "Contemporary feminist scholar Sally Roesch Wagner argues that...`They studied the Iroquois...and found a cosmological world that they believed to be far superior to the patriarchal one of the white nation in which they lived...'"

Pietrie, H. M. [Letter to the Editor]. Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News. August 6, 1995, p. 4-J.

Pietrie is sketching a plan that will create "responsible, self-reliant communities...unified into a confederation for mutual trade, based on a sustainable economy." To govern these confederations, Pietrie suggests a model "based upon the Iriquois [sic] confederation system...[which] was copied by the early 'founders' of the United States..." Pietrie refers readers to Johansen, Forgotten Founders [1982].

Porter, Robert B. "Strengthening Sovereignty Through Peacemaking -- The Seneca Nation's Experience." Daybreak, Vol. 1, No. 5 (1995), pp. 14-16.

Porter is attorney general of the Seneca Nation of Indians and visiting professor, University of Tulsa College of Law. He examines an ongoing political crisis among the Senecas that has recently left three people dead, bringing into his case the distinctive political history of the Iroquois League. "This form of government," he writes, "served as the model for the American constitution, based on the notion that all human beings have the ability to use their minds and that all significant decisions should be reached by consensus." (p. 14)

Saiz, Janet. "Treaty Opponents Ignore History" [letter to the editor]. Madison [Wisconsin] State Journal, March 22, 1995, p.9-A.

Saiz is replying to another letter in the paper by Diane Vaughan which asserts that Indian treaties are discriminatory. "As far as living by 'the same rules and laws as the rest of us,'" Saiz writes, "Most of the Constitution of 'our' founding fathers came from the laws of the Iroquois nation. Someone is badly in need of some real history lessons."

(*) Samuels, David. "Philanthropical Correctness: The Failure of American Foundations." The New Republic, September 18, 1995, p. 28.

Samuels begins his piece with a description of a dinner held in San Francisco by the Council on Foundations to honor its retiring president, James Joseph, who left that position to serve as ambassador to South Africa. Joseph, who developed these themes in more detail in a book published in 1995 (above), said at the dinner, that his vision of charity combines "The civic habits of the Iroquois admired by Benjamin Franklin, the Afro-American passion for justice, [and] the neo-Confucian respect for benevolence and giving..."

Scott, Vernon. United Press International, Entertainment Desk, April 3, 1995.

Scott, UPI's Hollywood reporter, details the making of "500 Nations," the CBS television series financed and hosted by Kevin Costner, broadcast during 1995. The series is said to have been the brainchild of Jack Leustig, who was asked in 1990 to make a half-hour documentary on the filming of "Dances With Wolves." Instead, Leustig convinced Costner to stake a nationally broadcast series on Native Americans. Leustig describes to Scott the genesis of the Iroquois Confederacy and its democratic attributes. The TV series includes a segment on the Iroquois which notes that the Iroquois model helped shape the founding of the United States.

(*) Seton, Tony. "Candidating Game." San Francisco Chronicle, September 10, 1995, p. 6.

In a letter to the editor, Seton, of Mill Valley, California, writes that "The solution to all this gender bashing is not to have two political parties -- one male and one female -- as was suggested in a letter last week (Sept. 3)." Seton says that we should "take another lesson from our predecessors, the Iroquois, whose matriarchs chose their chiefs. Let's have one gender be the candidates and the other be the voters. And we could switch off roles every four years."

(*) Sharkey, Alix. "Inside Story: Indian Giver..." The Guardian [England]. April 8, 1995, p. T-27.

Sharkey writes at length (5,880 words) on Lakota (Sioux) objections to the fact that Kevin Costner, whom they once adopted after his role in "Dances With Wolves," now plans to build a large casino and resort in the Lakotas' sacred Black Hills. Part of the piece quotes Webster Poor Bear, a Lakota, who, according to Sharkey's account, "grew up on the rez." "The Black Hills belong to the Lakota people," Poor Bear is quoted as saying. "There is absolutely no respect for the Hills, for Mother Earth, for our water, or the people it was taken from. It's all for monetary gain. They stole these lands from us, and made us captives on our own land and started leeching it for all it's worth. Stabbed us in the back. Wrote treaties and broke them. And the irony is that the U.S. Constitution is based on the 16-nation [sic] Iroquois Confederacy's Constitution."

Shaw, Christopher. "A Theft of Spirit." New Age Journal, August, 1995, pp. 84-92.

The New Age Journal asks its audience whether plastic medicine men are ripping off Native American religious traditions for profit. In this context, author Shaw recalls his days as a youth in New York's Mohawk Valley. He briefly outlines the history of the Haudenosaunee, and the Great Law of Peace, adding, on page 87, "The law, which fosters the exercise of reason and clear thinking and protects free speech and equality for women, may have been influential in crafting the United States Constitution."

Vesburgh, Lois. "Roles to Fill: South Dakota Researcher's Work, Performances Connect to CNY." Syracuse Herald-American, January 1, 1995.

This newspaper column describes performances of Matilda Joslyn Gage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Sally Roesch Wagner, who also has done considerable research into ways in which Iroquois political and social structures influenced the feminism of both women in the nineteenth century. Wagner recounts here Gage's surprise at finding that Iroquois women played important roles in political affairs at a time when women in the United States were property of their husbands and could not vote. Gage was adopted into the Mohawk wolf clan. "These women were amazed to learn that Native American women had rights long before white women in this country had them. The women in Iroquois tribes owned property and voted. They controlled the rights to reproduction and the rights to raise their children," Wagner is quoted as saying.

(*) Wagner, Sally Roesch. "The Untold Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists." Native American Press/Ojibwe News [Bemidji, Minn.] October 22, 1995, pp. 1,5.

This is a reprint of Wagner's essay "Is Equality Indigenous?" documenting Iroquois influence on nineteenth-century feminists Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage.

(*) Wandell, Jack. "Demonizing the Big Glass House." Akwesasne Notes, New Series 1:3 & 4 (Fall, 1995), pp. 118-120.

The "Big Glass House" is the United Nations. Wandell describes right-wing attacks on it in the United States on the U.N.'s 50th anniversary. He begins his article: "Among the most notable legacies of the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois]...is the Charter of the...United Nations..."

West, Woody. "The Way West: Series' PC Myth-making Turns Indians Into Saints and Whites into Savages." Washington Times, May 7, 1995, p. D-1.

This is a review of several television productions dealing with American Indian History, including CBS' "500 Nations," Turner Broadcasting's "The Native Americans," the Discovery Channel's "How the West Was Lost, and the PBS series "The Way West." The reviewer speculates that the outpouring of material sympathetic to Native Americans on national television is "a spasm of romanticism...blending sentimentalism, half-baked history, and soft-centered ideology." West quotes a review of the Turner series in the New York Times, "which scoffed at its assertion that Western democracy began with the [sic] Iroquois wampum belt: so much for John Locke."

Other items

1. Video Tape, "America's Great Indian Nations," Quester Home Video (Chicago, Ill.). This hour-long tape surveys the histories of the Iroquois, Seminole, Shawnee, Navajo, Cheyenne, and Lakota. Five times the script mentions the idea that the Iroquois political system helped shape democracy. The film briefly recounts the founding epic of the Iroquois and notes Benjamin Franklin's use of Iroquois concepts. Tape received from John Kahionhes Fadden (who contributed artwork to it) January 9, 1995.

2. Brochure, White Pine Primary School, Ithaca, N.Y., not dated: "White Pine Primary School is named in honor of the white pine tree, a symbol of peaceful cooperation for the Six Nations of the Hodenosaunee. Their democratic federation inspired Benjamin Franklin and other founders of the United States of America."

3. Kevin Costner's "500 Nations," an eight-hour documentary aired in four segments on CBS during the spring of 1995, contained references to Haudenosaunee government and Benjamin Franklin's use of its concepts. TV Guide (Vermont edition, supplied by John Kahionhes Fadden), provides a sketch of the show (on p. 71), which says that the segment to be aired May 27 shows "how the democratic Haudenosaunee inspired Ben Franklin to press for Colonial independence from England." The primary conduit of the "influence" idea in this case was Derek Milne, a doctoral student at the University of California -- Los Angeles who works with the American Indian Studies Center, publishers of Exemplar of Liberty [1991].

4. The "influence" thesis figured into several presentations and roundtable discussions at the Tribal Sovereignty Summit, organized by the Lummi Nation Treaty Task Force at the behest of the National Congress of American Indians to define ways in which Native nations can exercise greater sovereignty, and to report to the President, Congress, and tribal leaders. The summit, held in Washington, D.C., June 22-24, included a detailed description of Iroquois governance by Oren Lyons; Grinde and Johansen also presented papers; both also served on an editing committee for the conference proceedings.

5. During November, 1994, a discussion group on the World Wide Web took up the Iroquois influence on democracy. Diane Carpenter Crews of Cornell University Cooperative Extension forwarded e-mail from this network. The subject apparently rose among intellectuals in Quebec who were discussing what kind of political system would evolve there if Quebec became an independent nation. [A referendum on the subject had just failed bu a narrow margin with 92 per cent of Quebec voters taking part.]

   Electronic copies of Arthur Parker's version of the Great Law of Peace are offered, along with a statement outlining its contributions to North American federalism, citing Charles Mee, Genius of the People [1987]. News of the interchange was relayed to Crews by Davydd J. Greenwood, Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University.

6. Leaflet, The Tracking Project, Corrales, N.M., from John Kahionhes Fadden, January, 1996. The leaflet, titled "The Art of Traditional Peacemaking," describes tribal peacemaking traditions around the world, including the Iroquois Great Law of Peace. "Perhaps, just as the Great Law of the Iroquois influenced the United States Constitution, the understandings of traditional peacemaking will be adopted by the governments of the world to end the cycle of warfare that now overshadows our human family." The leaflet was created by John Stokes, director of The Tracking Project, and Louis Blue Cloud Greensfelder at a national Indian youth leadership program in Gallup, N.M.

7. Video Tape (30 minutes), "They Lied to You in School: Ray Fadden Speaks." White Buffalo Multimedia, Woodstock New York. No date on tape; circa 1995. On this tape Ray Fadden, founder of the Iroquois Six Nations Museum in Onchiota, New York, and Mohawk culture bearer, talks of Indian contributions to American society, including the role of Iroquois democratic traditions in shaping fundamental law in the United States.

8. (*) Internet posting: Glenn Morris [associate professor of political science, University of Colorado/Denver], "For the Next Seven Generations: Indigenous Americans and Communalism." Cites Johansen, Forgotten Founders [1982,1987]. http://www.ic.org/ic/fic/cdir/art/30Morris.html

9. (*) Internet posting: "American Indian Movement of Colorado Reading List" (http://www.russellmeans.com/readinglist.html). Lists Grinde and Johansen, Exemplar of Liberty [1991]. List compiled by Russell Means and Professor Glenn Morris, Political Science Department, University of Colorado at Denver.

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