The Great Law

The United States constitution barrows many of it's ideas from the Iroquois conistitution, also called the Great Law of Peace. The Iroquis constitution was created sometime between 1000-1400 AD (historians think it was made closer to 1400 AD). The great law was created to stop the fighting between Native American tribes around lake Erie. Like the US constitution the Iroqouis constitution was a document that organized the structure of their goverment. The constitution outlined the rights of it's citezens, the responicbilities of it's leaders, polices about immigration, land, and declaring war. It also covered religion, freedoms, and the power of the president regarding war. Some of the ideas of the Great Law of Peace were separation between church and state, freedom of the press, religion and speech. When Franklin Rosevelt learned about the Iroquois goverment he was very impressed. He saw that their were many features of their constituion that were lacking from the goverments at his time including a ban on the forced entry of goverment into citizens homes, the freedom of politics and religous freedoms and the impeachment of corrupt officials or leaders.

Reading the "The Great Law" was very interesting to me. It was a part of our history that I knew little about. I rember hearing that our constitution was based on a document that was created by Native Americans, however I did not know much of the details. I find it interesting that we abused the Native Americans and at the same time admired them. I am wondering why most Americans have not heard about the The Great Law of Peace. I think that it is an important part of our history. Without it our goverment may be much different. I would also be curious to learn how the British adopted the Iroquois constitution and how it influenced their form of goverment.