What did the Americans ever do for us?

GGI co-founder Dr John Bullivant, FRCPE, FCQI, reports from his 2024 Autumn study tour to the USA

OK, so the Greeks gave us the principles of democracy, separation of powers, and the rule of law as well as mathematics, sculpture, science and medicine… and some marbles. The Romans taught us sewage, roads, language, calculating distances and using money. But who really set up modern governance for nations and corporates? Well, it may seem contentious at the moment but it was the Americans… not the current bunch but the indigenous native Americans, the Haudenosaunee, those people who ‘built a sustainable house’.

We have just been visiting Long Island, NY, on a study tour learning about how the American Indian tribes the Haudenosaunee were instrumental in shaping American and worldwide democracy, governance and the commitment to the sustainability of future generations.

Around 1580 the warring tribes in the NE decided to sink their differences and create a confederacy recognising that ‘whilst you can break one twig easily, six together are strong’. Look at the Great Seal of the United States and you can see this imagery. The bald eagle, another symbol of the Haudenosaunee nation, was also adopted as the national symbol of the new nation.

Dekanawidah (the Peacemaker), a Huron, persuaded Hiawatha, an Onondaga living among Mohawks, to advance “peace, civil authority, righteousness, and the great law” as sanctions for the confederation. Seeking to stand together against invasion, the tribes united in a common council composed of clan and village chiefs; each tribe had one vote, and unanimity was required for decisions. Under the Great Law of Peace (Gayanesshagowa), the joint jurisdiction of 50 peace chiefs, known as sachems, or hodiyahnehsonh, democratically embraced all civil affairs at the intertribal level. Haudenosaunee means “peoples of the longhouse,” and refers to their lengthy bark-covered longhouses that housed many families. Theirs was a sophisticated and thriving society of well over 5,000 people when the first European explorers encountered them in the early seventeenth century.

When the new 13 New England states broke away from Britain they were encouraged by the Haudenosaunee leader, Hiawatha to adopt some of the confederacy guidelines. Members of the joint tribes sat with the authors of the new constitution in 1789 including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, all of whom had eschewed European models of government. The joint tribes advised on proven principles of self-help, resilience, diversity and a commitment to decision making for seven generations hence. In this way they provided the embryonic United States with good governance and the concept of sustainability, subsequently embodied in the Welsh Government’s The Well-being of Future Generations Act, 2015 which required public bodies in Wales to think about the long-term impact of their decisions.

The Haudenosaunee encouraged diversity reflecting the role of women in their decision making. Haudenosaunee women had many more rights than colonial women. It was the example of Haudenosaunee women that inspired the early US suffragettes like Susan Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Matilda Joslyn Gage who worked for women's rights and the rights for women to vote but this was only granted across the USA in 1920. Even then not all women could vote. It wasn’t until 1965 that the US Voting Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination for all in voting.

Back to the 18^th Century

In 1744, the Onondaga leader Canassatego gave a speech urging the contentious 13 American colonies to unite, as the Haudenosaunee had at the signing of the Treaty of Lancaster. This cultural exchange inspired the English colonist Benjamin Franklin to print Canassatego’s speech.

"We heartily recommend Union and a good Agreement between you our Brethren," Canassatego had said. "Never disagree, but preserve a strict Friendship for one another, and thereby you, as well as we, will become the stronger. Our wise Forefathers established Union and Amity between the Five Nations; this has made us formidable; this has given us great Weight and Authority with our neighboring Nations. We are a powerful Confederacy; and, by your observing the same Methods our wise Forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh Strength and Power; therefore whatever befalls you, never fall out one with another."

In 1744, Canassatego served as a speaker at meetings to negotiate the Treaty of Lancaster. At the end of the conference, Canassatego gave the colonists some advice:

Back to Long Island, NYC

The six nations were driven by the rapidly growing population of the 13 states to the periphery of incorporated lands such as North Fork, Long island where an excellent museum at Southold records the evolution and products (including pots, paints, spices and arrowheads) of the local tribes. Eventually most of the native Americans moved further north and west to form their extended confederacy.

Ultimately, they failed in their and others (notably Tecumseh’s) efforts to create a united tribe of America sometimes selling land (not always their own such as western Pennsylvania and Kentucky) and then supporting the British against the embryonic American state. But the legacy lives on and in 1988, the U.S. Senate paid tribute with a resolution (3) that said, "The confederation of the original 13 colonies into one republic was influenced by the political system developed by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the constitution itself."

Lasting lessons

The confederacy provides lasting lessons for Americans but also for British public and corporate institutions:

1. Concepts such as the NHS health service must not be seen as a hospital building or even as an institution rather as a network of place with its resilience / strength in a joint common purpose.
2. Decision-making must consider future generations, maybe as much as seven generations hence.
3. Decision-making is better served by encouraging diversity including the life experiences of all tribes, religions, sexes and races.
4. Nature, its lessons and future is a fundamental concern for all, Success must be measured in terms of the social and environmental impacts of actions for all (stakeholders) thus eschewing the narrow concept of corporates fiduciary duty to a narrow group of shareholders.
5. Challenge (from all) is acceptable and to be respected in deliberation and decision-making.

Lessons taken by the US Constitution from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy

Haudenosaunee

The name Haudenosaunee means ‘People of the Longhouse’. To the Haudenosaunee people, the longhouse meant much more than the building where they lived. It was also a symbol for many of the traditions of their society.

Five nations formed the original Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. These nations shared a territory they thought of as a large longhouse.

The five nations were the Mohawk, self-name: Kanien’kehá:ka (‘People of the Flint’); Oneida, self-name: Onᐱyoteʔa∙ká (‘People of the Standing Stone’); Onondaga, self-name: Onoñda’gega (‘People of the Hills’); Cayuga, self-name: Gayogo̱hó:nǫ (‘People of the Great Swamp’); and Seneca, self-name: Onödowa’ga: (‘People of the Great Hill’).

After the Tuscarora, (self-name: Skarù∙ręʔ or ‘People of the Shirt’) joined in 1722, the confederacy became known to the English as the Six Nations and was recognized as such at Albany, New York (1722).

References

• How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy
• Tecumseh, A Life, John Sugden, Pimlico, 1999