Hank Burchard  wrote:
>    The unsubstantiated assertion that the Iriquois Confederacy's
>constitution influenced the U.S. Constitution was stated as bald fact
>from the podium at the press preview for the National Museum of the
>American Indian's Heye Center in Manhattan. The director of NMAI nodded
>his beaming assent to the statement (made by New York's secretary of
>state), which now presumably now carries the imprimatur of The
>Smithsonian Institution for the Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge....
 
Doug Greenberg did a good job of substantiating his point that there is no
direct evidence of Madison using the Confederacy of the Iroquois as a model
for the Constitution. The idea of influence is not something, respectfully,
that I think even Doug would be able to prove one way or the other.
Weatherford (Indian Givers), Wright (Stolen Continents), Johansen
(Forgotten Founding Fathers) and the late Warren Lowes (Indian giver : A
Legacy of North American Native Peoples, Theytus Books 1986) have all
interpreted the influence as being very direct though Doug rightfully has a
differing interpretation. While it may be true that Paine was seen by many
as antithetical in his tactics or desires for a full revolution it would be
hard to say he and others were not at least influenced. The 1754 Albany
meeting that Doug speaks of is apparently where the Canassetego reference
comes from and that is, as Greenberg demonstrates, only the
characterization of Franklin.
 
Interestingly, Doug states that history is not an opinion but cites
Franklin's opinion as the source of history. Weatherford also states that
Paine was involved with Franklin during the same year, 1754, in his visit
to the colonies. Franklin was the Indian Commissioner for Pennsylvania in
the 1750's. Actually, Weatherford and Johansen cite the Canassetego speech
as occuring in July 1744 and that the Albany 1754 meeting was one wherein
FRANKLIN proposed emulating the Iroguois. The Congressional Resolution of
1780, the Land Ordinances of 1784 and 1785 and the Northwestern Ordinance
are also characterized as being similiar to the Iroquois concepts of
states-like partnerships which were written into the Constitution.
 
Washington had certainly dealt with the Iroquois form of government in
dealings with native folk in his role as an English militarist. An
important point to consider is that the men who founded the country had
often been born in America and had the influences of their youth and the
context of their communities which included Native Americans. Henry Steele
Commager (The Empire of Reason) is quoted as stating " if Americans did not
actually invent federalism, they were able to take out an historical patent
on it." While I agree with Greenberg's statement about Madison and a model
I am not sure that a blanket rejection of influence as implied in
Burchard's message is appropriate.
 
Paul Apodaca
Bowers Museum
Santa Ana, CA
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