The Iroquois Constitution

[halsherman]

The Constitution of the Iroquois great laws influenced our founding fathers when our government was set up. It take some time but worth reading the best thoughts of the Native people of that time. www.constitution.org/cons/iroquois.htm

[Matthew S. Schweitzer]

Here is another link to a page that addresses the same issue of Iroquois influence on the early American Republic.

www.tuscaroras.com/graydeer/influenc/page1.htm

I know there has been some controversy surrounding this subject and relating issues such as the use of the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States which many claim was a direct grab from Iroquois symbolism.

The Great Seal
The eagle symbolizing the Iroquois Confederacy held six arrows, one for each of the Six Nations. The eagle on the American seal holds 13 arrows, one for each of the 13 original states.

From the US Government's official booklet on the Great Seal, describing the lengthy search for a suitable design:

The Congress still was not satisfied. On June 13, 1782, it presented the collected work and recommendations of the three committees to Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress. Thomson was not an artist, but he was a practical man with the ability to get things done. He selected the best features of all the previous designs, assigning prominence to the eagle. Feeling that the new nation's symbol should be strictly American, however, Thomson replaced Barton's crested Imperial eagle with the native American bald eagle, wings extending downward as though in flight. He placed in the left talon a bundle of arrows and in the right, the olive branch. Providence.

Note the connection between the seal's design and Thomson's deep familiarity with Indian culture. Most Indian tribes hold the eagle sacred. They don't feel the same about Ben Franklin's choice for a national symbol, the wild turkey.