Haudenosaunee Confederacy — The Great Law of Peace
The Haudenosaunee ('People of the Longhouse') Confederacy was one of the most sophisticated political systems in pre-contact North America. Its five founding nations — the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca (the Tuscarora joined in 1722, making it six) — were united under the Great Law of Peace (Gayanashagowa), a constitution transmitted orally and encoded in wampum belts. The Great Law established: a bicameral council structure (Nine Mohawk and Seneca sachems, fourteen Onondaga sachems as tie-breakers, nine Cayuga sachems, nine Oneida sachems); decision by consensus (majority voting was not used — unanimous agreement was required); explicit prohibitions on war between member nations; and the right of Clan Mothers to appoint sachems and to 'dehorn' (remove) those who failed in their duties. The founding is attributed to the Peacemaker (Deganawida), who according to Haudenosaunee tradition came to end the cycle of blood-feud violence among the Five Nations, and Hiawatha (not the Longfellow character), a Mohawk or Onondaga leader who carried the message. The confederacy was functioning by the time European contact began in the early 17th century. The influence debate: Several historians and Native leaders have argued that the Haudenosaunee Great Law influenced American constitutional design. Benjamin Franklin attended a 1744 treaty conference where Onondaga spokesman Canasatego explicitly proposed that the colonists form a union modelled on the Iroquois pattern. Franklin published the conference proceedings, and the Albany Plan of Union (1754) — the first proposal for American colonial union, authored by Franklin — incorporated elements of the confederacy structure. The American Revolution split the confederacy along political lines (the `iroquois_split:1777` event): the Oneida and Tuscarora supported the Americans; the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca supported the British. The League's post-war diminishment was catastrophic, but the Haudenosaunee nations survive as sovereign entities today.
- Year: 1450 CE
- Category: Political
