How The Iroquois Confederacy Helped Shape The New Law Of The Land Back

The debate over the legality of sovereignty and acquired lands from the native Americans, specifically the Cherokee, has long been debated. The issues involved have included treaties, land sold, and the right of the Government to physically enforce their rules on Indian land "sovereignty". This paper will examine the strategy used by the Federal Governments, the State Governments as well as those of the Cherokee Indians. The three-way relationship as well as the issues will examine how the interpretation of the Constitution changed society prior to the year of 1840.

United States Americans have always learned about the constitution, but they don’t know everything about it. What most people don’t know is that the U.S Constitution is based off the Iroquois Constitution. The Iroquois is a group of Indians that were having conflict between their five nations; because of this they created a constitution to unite and give structure to their nations. Their constitution is mostly different than the U.S. Constitution, but there are a few similarities between the two.

The constitution is a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed (Oxford Dictionaries). The Constitution was written the same place the Declaration of Independence was signed. The constitution was written during the Philadelphia Convention, which is now known as the Constitutional Convention. The constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 presided by George Washington (Standards,B.). There were several failed attempts to create a government and that is why the convention was called. Under America’s first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, that national government was very weak and the states operated like independent countries (The U.S. Constitution, 2016).Without the constitution each states government would not have any type of structure or anything to go by. The Constitution is broken into three branches: Legislative, Executive, and the Judicial Branch (Holzer, Schwester, 1977). In the

A constitution is a written document that sets forth the fundamental rules by which a society is governed. Throughout the course of history the United States has lived under two Constitutions since the British-American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776. First in line was the Articles of Confederation (1789-1789) followed by the Constitution of United States of America (1789-present). The Articles of Confederation was the first formal written Constitution of America that specified how the national government was to operate. Unfortunately, the Articles did not last long. Under the words of the Article’s power was limited; Congress could make decisions, but had no power to enforce them. Also the articles stated

Each constitution has its own laws and rules, constitutions have been around for years. Every government needs a constitution to survive, or it would be chaos. No one would have rules or laws to follow, which would be madness. Even though the Iroquois Constitution helped build the United States (U.S.) Constitution, it does not mean that they are identical. Both of these constitutions have some alikes and differences.

Before the American Revolution, Native Americans created diverse and complex societies and organized them around common principles. Relationships to land and leadership played important roles in structuring Native life, but served unique functions in each community. For both the Iroquois and Wampanoag, their relationships to land embodied their lifeways; their land was their identity, their resource, their claim to power and sovereignty, and more. While the Iroquois vested leadership powers in the institution of the Great League of Peace, the Wampanoag depended on the leadership of powerful sachems such as Massasoit and Metacomet. However, both the Iroquois and Wampanoag used leadership in their tribes to preserve peace to a degree and protect their sovereignty when dealing with Europeans and other Natives. Despite their similarities and differences, the Wampanoag and Iroquois distinctively used their relationships to land and leadership to protect their interests.

Constitution have in common is that they both have a council kind of thing. The differences are though is that Iroquois is an actual council with a few people in it, while with the U.S. there are many different powers and titles vested into the U.S. like legislative, executive, and judicial powers. Plus they both have ways/rituals to get into the council just done differently. The U.S. they have to do a pledge saying that they will obey the laws that are in the constitution or they will have to accept any consequences that they will have. With the Iroquois they have it to where the person joining the council has to bring some stuff and then they use the feather that they have to use to indicate if the person wanting to join is worthy of it or

When the Framers of the Constitution met in Philadelphia, they came together with one common purpose in mind. They needed to form a fair and solid system of government that would stand the test of time; one that was both fair for the people and would not involve a monarchy. Each of these men had their own ideas on what would constitute this system, however, so many compromises had to be made. Together, the men gathered in Philadelphia created a federal system of government and drafted a constitution outlining this government. They took care in developing three branches of federal government with a system of checks and balances so that no one branch would gain too much power, thus avoiding any

There are many similarities between the constitution and the principles of the Iroquois. Researchers Vine Deloraia, Bruce Johnson, and Donald Grind have found that the very foundation of both sets of principles mirror each other (Johansen 1998:79):

Nothing is more fundamental yet so important to the freedoms we enjoy as Americans as the United States Constitution, which guarantee our right to do and say as we please so long as it does no harm to anyone. The Iroquois Nation preamble is placed on perfect peace for the welfare of the people. Their focus was fighting for the liberty of the people. Among the Indian nations whose ancient seats were within the limits of our republic, the Iroquois have long continued to occupy the conspicuous position. Nations they now set forth upon the canvas of the Indian history prominent as for the wisdom of their civil institution of the federations. Only the Iroquois had a system that seemed to meet most of the demands espoused by the

The Iroquois Confederacy was formed primarily as a means of peacekeeping and mediation among the five Iroquois nations and also to form an alliance, especially against foreign powers in the New World. They were highly successful in these goals, mainly because they were able to put up a united front. If you think about it, the smaller tribes were the first ones to be decimated when the Europeans arrived; some died of disease and some died in conflict, but the smaller groups were definitely at a disadvantage. Because the Iroquois were a very sizeable group, they were a force to be reckoned with. They had enough strength in numbers to put up a good fight in conflicts and they had an organized government, especially compared to the other Native

The Beaver Wars were fought from 1640 - 1701, this war was also called the French and Iroquois Wars. The war was fought between the Iroquois Confederacy and the French and their Native allies from the Huron and Algonquin tribes who were from the central Great Lakes area (Ohio Valley). The Iroquois Confederacy consisted of Native Americans from five different tribes Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca people who were from the eastern part of Great Lakes (New York state). The Mohawk tribe began to establish trading agreements with the Dutch exchanging beaver pelts for guns, however the Mohawks also wanted to expand their territory expanding their market in the Great Lakes region. The French and their allies took offense to the expansion by the Iroquois Confederacy and a war

1). The reason for the construction of the Iroquois confederacy, or the league of the Iroquois, (Haudenosaunee) was the impeding factor of disunity between the tribes. Hienwatha, a Mohawk Iroquois, lived in Ontario and observed the disunity between the Iroquois tribes. In an attempt to unify the nations, he approached rival tribes and argued the benefits of unification. Initially, his idea is shut down by the elders of each tribe. The changing climate that started to occur, however, increased confrontations between tribes. Hienwatha yet again tries to explain to the Iroquois people about the possibility of peace and is rejected again. He then alludes the nations to a weaved belt of wampum shells which supposedly illustrated the connectedness of the five Iroquois nations. He traveled among the nations, of which all then supported the idea of unity, and was able to form a seemingly impenetrable force.

The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 and included new amendments and articles of the newly formed Federal Republic government (Dickovick &Eastwood 557-559). However, fast forward to 2017 we still have the same Federal Republic system with Democratic elections. The constitution ensures a liberal democracy that serves and protects the rights and freedoms of its citizens. Although it has had its up and downs the framers of the constitution had set forth a separation of powers that involved checks and balances. This separation of powers required that no one entity have all the power to rule or run this country alone. It divided the powers between three branches Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

The Constitution was just in that it created a system of checks and balances within the government making all branches equal. The Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches are the the 3 branches of the American government, they were created to maintain equal power and avoid tyranny within the US government. Tyranny was one of the main fears within the Articles of Confederation as well as the United States Constitution of 1787. The Constitution produces a just government by regulating power so that one person or branch does not gain all available power, while it also removes the possibility of a tyrant. Each branch of the government has a specific job to obtain; The Legislative branch creates the laws, the Executive branch carries out the laws, and the Judicial branch determines if they are constitutional. This divergence gives each branch a certain power that only they can carry out which maintains checks and balances. In Federalist Paper #51 by James Madison