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Gayanashagowa or the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee) Six Nations (Oneida, Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, the Seneca and Tuscarora) is the oral constitution whereby the Iroquois Confederacy was bound together. The law was written on wampum belts, conceived by Deganawidah, known as The Great Peacemaker, and his spokesman Hiawatha. The original five member nations ratified this constitution near present-day Victor, New York, with the sixth nation (the Tuscarora) being added in ca. 1722.
The laws were first recorded and transmitted not in written language, but by means of wampum symbols that conveyed meaning. In a later era it was translated into English. The Great Law of Peace is divided into 117 articles. The united Iroquois nations are symbolized by an Eastern White Pine tree, called the Tree of Peace. Each nation or tribe plays a delineated role in the conduct of government.
Attempts to date the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy focus on an incident reported. One rendition of the oral history eventually written down by scholars involves a division among the Seneca nation, the last Indian nation to join the confederacy. A violent confrontation began and was suddenly stopped when the sun darkened and it seemed like night. Scholars have successively studied the possibilities this event was a solar eclipse since 1902 when William Canfield wrote Legends of the Iroquois; told by “the Cornplanter”.[1] Successive other scholars who mention it were (chronologically): Paul A. W. Wallace,[2] Elizabeth Tooker,[3] Bruce E. Johansen,[4][5] Dean R. Snow,[6] Barbara A. Mann and Jerry L. Fields,[7] William N. Fenton,[8] David Henige,[9] Gary Warrick,[10] and Neta Crawford.[11]
Since Canfield's first mention,[1] and the majority view,[2][3][6][8][10] scholars have supported the 1451AD date for the plausible solar eclipse mention. Some argue it is an insufficient fit for the description and favor 1142AD[4][7] while a few question the whole idea.[9]
Archeological supporting arguments have progressed. In 1982 Dean Snow considered the mainstream view of the archeology to not support dates before 1350AD.[6] By 1998 Fenton considered it unlikely but possible after 1000AD.[8] By 2007/8 reviews considered it clearly possible even if most still supported the 1451AD as the safe choice.[10][11]
Historians, including Donald Grinde of the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, have claimed that the democratic ideals of the Gayanashagowa provided a significant inspiration to Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and other framers of the United States Constitution. Franklin circulated copies of the proceedings of the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster among his fellow colonists; at the close of this document, the Six Nations leaders offer to impart instruction in their democratic methods of government to the English. John Rutledge of South Carolina, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, is said to have read lengthy tracts of Six Nations law to the other framers, beginning with the words "We, the people, to form a union, to establish peace, equity, and order..."[12] In October 1988, the U.S. Congress passed Concurrent Resolution 331 to recognize the influence of the Iroquois Constitution upon the American Constitution and Bill of Rights.[13]
The extent of the influence of Six Nations law on the U.S. Constitution is disputed by other scholars.[14] Haudenosaunee historian Elizabeth Tooker has pointed to several differences between the two forms of government, notably that all decisions were made by a consensus of male chiefs who gained their position through a combination of blood descent and selection by female relatives, that representation on the basis of the number of clans in the group rather than the size or population of the clans, that the topics discussed were decided by a single tribe. Tooker concluded there is little resemblance between the two documents, or reason to believe the Six Nations had a meaningful influence on the American Constitution, and that it is unclear how much impact Canasatego's statement at Lancaster actually had on the representatives of the colonies.[15] Stanford University historian Jack N. Rakove argued against any Six Nations influence, pointing to lack of evidence in U.S. constitutional debate records, and examples of European antecedents for democratic institutions.[16]
Journalist Charles C. Mann has noted other differences between The Great Law of Peace and the original U.S. Constitution, including the original Constitution's denial of suffrage to women, and rule of majority as opposed to consensus.[17]
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