Symbol. A symbol is a thing that stands for or represents both itself and something else. In the selection you are about to read, several elements of nature are used as symbols. As you read pay attention to these symbols and think about their meaning. |
The Iroquois Constitution, dating from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, joined together several peoples who lived on the shores of the Great Lakes into the Iroquois League, or Iroquois Confederacy. Initially, the Iroquois League included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. In the 1700s, however, the Tuscarora joined the Confederacy, making it the League of Six Nations. Tradition holds that the league was begun by Dekanawidah, a Huron whose words open the constitution, and by Hiawatha, an Onondaga who lived among the Mohawks. Each brought to the league his own special talents. Dekanawidah was a diplomat who envisioned the many branches of the Iroquois people united under his Tree of Great Peace. Hiawatha brought this message of unity—the Great Law of Peace—to the Iroquois people as he traveled the country.
The Iroquois lived by hunting, trading, and raising crops such as corn, beans, and squash. For shelter, they built magnificent long houses, covered with elm bark, that housed several families. Kinship groups, or clans, many named after totem, or symbolic, animals such as the beaver or hawk, were united into half tribes. These were united into tribes, and the tribes into the league. Decisions of the league were made in great council meetings. Each league member had one vote, and all member nations had to agree before any action was taken. The league was ruled by fifty male peace chiefs, who were chosen by the Iroquois women. The political system of the Iroquois was well known to the Founding Fathers of the United States, including Benjamin Franklin, who saw in the Iroquois Constitution a model for representative government.
After the coming of Europeans, many Native American populations were decimated by epidemics of diseases such as smallpox. During the Colonial Period, the total Iroquois population numbered only about twelve thousand, and the total number of Iroquois warriors at any time numbered only a little over two thousand. Despite these small numbers, the Iroquois waged successful war against neighboring groups and held both British and French invaders at bay. During the American Revolution, two Iroquois groups sided with the colonists. The rest sided with the British, leading George Washington to send troops to destroy Iroquois settlements, fields, and stores of food. Later treaties set aside reservation lands for the Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora in New York. The Mohawks and Cayuga settled in Canada, and the Oneida in Wisconsin.
If you were going to design a constitution for a new country, what elements would
you include and why would you include them?
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