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Show 12 Hilltop Times Nov. 10, 1993 Canassatego 66 proposed colonies in 1744 Even if Americans did not actually invent federalism, they were able to take out a historical patent on it. 99 Editor's note: The following articles were submitted by SrA. Raymond Berry, an aircraft controller in the 649th Operations Services Squadron. His father, D.C. Berry, researched and wrote the articles after discovering as a grown man that he was one-haOgalala Sioux. The elder Berry had been placed in a foster home as a baby and was raised in a white home. SrA. Berry says his father's pursuit of his Native American heritage has given him a totally different perspective from that he'd grown up with. -- American historian lf by D.C. Berry Ever wonder how our founding fathers came up with our present system of government? Despite the myths surrounding the creation of American government, America's settlers from Europe knew little of democracy. Most of the known world at that time was ruled by monarchs who claimed that God conferred then-rigto rule. How did these new Americans ever dream up such a diverse system of government? The founding fathers faced a major problem when it came time to invent the United States. They represented, under the Articles of Confederation, 13 separate and sovereign states. How could one country be made from all 13 without each one yielding its own power? Reportedly, the first person to propose a union for all the colonies was the Iroquois chief Canassatego. Speaking at an Indian-Britis- h assembly in Pennsylvania in July 1744, he complained that the Indians found it difficult to deal with so many different colonial administrations, each with its own policy. It would make life easier for everyone involved if the colonists could have a union which allowed them to speak with one voice. He not only proposed that the colonies unify themselves, but told them how they might do it. He suggested that they do as his people had done and form a union like the League of the Iroquois. Hiawatha and Deganwidah founded the League of the Iroquois sometime between A.D. 1000 and 1540 under a constitution they called the Kaianerekowa, or Great Law of Peace. When the Europeans arrived in America, the League constituted the most extensive and important political unit north of the Aztec civilization. From earliest contact, the Iroquois intrigued the Europeans, and they were the subjects of many amazed reports. Benjamin Franklin, however, AFNEWS ht QOGafl NOVEMBER American Indian Heritage Month seems to have been the first to take their system as a potentially important model by which the settlers might be able to fashion a new government. Benjamin Franklin first became acquainted with Indian political organization in his capacity as official printer for the colony of Pennsylvania His job included publication of the records and speeches of the various Indian assemblies and treaty negotiations, but following his instinctive curiosity, he broadened this into a study of Indian culture and institutions. Because of his expertise and interest in Indian matters, the colonial government of Pennsylvania offered him his first diplomatic assignment as their Indian commissioner. He held this post during the 1750s and became intimately familiar with the intricacies of Indian political culture and in particular with the League of the Iroquois. After this taste of Indian diplomacy, Franklin became a lifelong champion of the Indian political structure and advocated its use by the colonists. Echoing the original proposal by Canassatego, Franklin advocated that the new American government incor i0(oo by D.C. Berry Indians of the Americas made many valuable contributions to the old world in the area of food. Among the many new foods introduced to the (old) world by American Indians were: corn, beans (including kidney, string, snap, butter, lima, navy and pole), peanuts, pineapple, chocolate, squash, tomatoes, peppers, wild rice and the potato. Henry Steele Commager porate many of the same features as the government of the Iroquois. Speaking to the Albany Congress in 1754, Franklin called on the delegates of the various English colonies to unite and emulate the Iroquois League, a call that was not heeded until the Constitution was written three decades later. Even though the founding fathers finally adopted some of the essential features of the Iroquois League, they never followed it in quite the detail advocated by Franklin. The Iroquois League united five the Moprincipal Indian nations hawk, Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida, and Cayuga. Each of these nations had a council composed of delegates called sachems who were elected by the tribes of that nation. The Seneca Nation elected eight sachems to its council, the Mohawk and Oneida nations each had councils of nine sachems, the Cayuga Nation had a council of ten, and the Onondaga Nation had a council of 14. Each of these nations governed its own territory, and its own council met to decide issues of its own public policy. But each of these councils exercised jurisdiction over the in- - ternal concerns of that one nation only; in this regard they exercised powers somewhat like the individual governments of the colonies. In addition to the individual councils of each separate nation, the sachems formed a grand council of the League in which all 50 sachems of the five nations sat together to discuss issues of common concern. The sachems represented their individual nations, but at the same time they represented the whole League of the Iroquois, thereby making the decision of the' grand council the law for all five nations. In this council each sachem had equal authority and privileges, with his power dependent on his oratorical ability to persuade. The council met in the autumn of at least one year in five in a longhouse in the Onondaga Nation (if needed, they could be called into session at other times as well). Their power extended to all matters of common concern among the member nations. The council declared war and made peace, sent and received emissaries, entered into treaties of alliance, regulated the affairs of subjugated nations,, received new members into the league, extended its pro- -' tection over feeble tribes, and in a word, took all needful measures to promote their prosperity and enlarge their dominion. Through this government the nations of the Iroquois controlled territory from New England to the Mississippi River, and they built a league that endured for centuries. Unlike European governments, the league blended the sovereignty of several nations into one government. This model of several sovereign units united into one government presented precisely the solution to the problem confronting the writers of the United States Constitution. Today we call this a "federal" system in which each state retains power over internal affairs and the national government regulates affairs common to all. Henry Steele Commager later wrote of this crucial time that, "even if Americans did not actually invent federalism, they were able to take out a historical patent on it." What Commager failed to concede in his historical journal was that Americans did invent federalism. These benefactors, however, were the original (Native) Americans rather than the new (colonial) Americans. gDb(alD 00(01(30 Of all these, the potato (not chocolate) had the largest, most global impact. Imagine Ireland, Russia or Poland without their national crop ... the potato. Today the potato is grown in almost every nation on earth. But in fact, Indians of the Andes have been growing potatoes for at least the last 4,000 years. These same Indians also devised and perfected the "freeze-dried- " method of preserving the potato. At night, farmers put their potatoes out in the freezing air of the high mountains. During the day, the sun thawed the potatoes, and the farm family walked over them to press out the melting moisture. After several repetitions of this process, the potato dried into a white chunk that resembled modern plastic foam. The dried potato was very light, which enabled the Indians to transport great numbers of them to distant storehouses, where they could be kept for five or six years without spoilage. When needed, the dried potato was reconstituted by soaking it in water and then cooked. |