Before There Was an American Constitution, There Was the Great Law of Peace

 Before There Was an American Constitution, There Was the

  Great Law of Peace

Look closely at a Haudenosaunee wampum belt and you are looking at something far more profound than decoration.

For generations, North American history has too often been told as though sophisticated systems of government, diplomacy and democracy arrived with Europeans.

They didn't.

Long before the United States Constitution was written in 1787, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy had an established system of governance based on what is known as the Great Law of Peace, or Gayanesshagowa.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy brought together five nations—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. The Tuscarora later joined the Confederacy.

And they did something extraordinary.

They created a political system in which separate nations could maintain their own governments while coming together under a common law to maintain peace and make decisions affecting the Confederacy as a whole.

That is federalism.

That is constitutional government.

And it existed on this continent long before the United States.

The Hiawatha Belt

One of the most important wampum belts associated with the founding of the Confederacy is the Hiawatha Belt.

According to the Onondaga Nation, the belt records the moment when five nations that had been at war buried their weapons of war and agreed to live together in peace.

The five symbols on the belt represent the five original nations.

At the centre is the Onondaga, represented by the Tree of Peace.

The Onondaga became the Firekeepers of the Confederacy, responsible for maintaining the central council fire where the nations could come together.

The Mohawk became the Eastern Doorkeeper and the Seneca the Western Doorkeeper.

The image is remarkably simple:

Different nations. One longhouse. One common law. One peace.

The nations did not cease to be themselves.

They remained distinct peoples with their own councils and responsibilities while participating in the larger Confederacy.

That is an important distinction.

Unity did not require uniformity.

And what about democracy?

The Great Law included roles for chiefs, Clan Mothers and Faithkeepers. Clan Mothers had authority in the selection and removal of leaders.

Decisions were made through deliberation and consensus rather than simply through one person commanding everyone else.

The Onondaga Nation describes the Hiawatha Belt as a reminder to Confederacy leaders that decisions must be made not only for people living today, but also for generations yet unborn.

Think about that.

Government was not simply about winning today's argument.

It was about maintaining peace and protecting the future.

So was this the “first draft of the U.S. Constitution”?

That phrase is provocative—and it can be useful if we understand what it does and doesn't mean.

The United States Constitution was written in 1787. The Haudenosaunee Great Law is much older.

Benjamin Franklin and other colonial leaders were familiar with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Haudenosaunee representatives participated in the Albany Congress in 1754, where colonial leaders discussed the possibility of joining the colonies together. Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union that same year.

The U.S. Senate later recognized the influence of Haudenosaunee governmental ideas on the development of the United States.

But historians continue to debate exactly how much of the U.S. constitutional structure can be directly attributed to Haudenosaunee influence.

So let's not turn a complicated history into a slogan.

We don't need to claim that Benjamin Franklin simply copied the Great Law.

The more interesting truth is this:

The people who created the United States were not developing ideas about confederation in isolation. They were living in a continent where the Haudenosaunee Confederacy had already demonstrated that separate nations could unite under a common political system while retaining their own identities.

That history deserves to be taught.

Because democracy did not begin in Philadelphia.

And constitutional thinking did not begin in Europe.

There were sophisticated Indigenous political systems here long before the United States existed.

The wampum belt is not merely an artifact from the past.

It is a record of political thought.

A record of diplomacy.

A record of law.

And a reminder that the history of democracy in North America is much older—and much more Indigenous—than many of us were ever taught.

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