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.... * * * * * Hank Burchard * Weekend Section * The Washington Post 1150 15th Street NW * Washington DC USA 20071-0001 VoiceMail (202) 334-7243 * Email: [log in to unmask]