AY Honors/Native American Lore - Advanced/Answer Key
Gayanashagowa or the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee) Six Nations is the oral constitution that created the Iroquois Confederacy. The law was developed by a Huron man known as The Great Peacemaker and his spokesman Hiawatha. Member Nations ratified this constitution near present day Victor, New York.
The Iroquois Confederacy was once thought to have started in the 1500s, but more recent estimates date the Confederacy, and its constitution between 1090 and 1150 AD. These estimates were based on the records of the Confederacy leadership and astronomical dating related to the lunar eclipse that coincided with the founding of the Confederacy (Mann 2005, p.332).
According to some researchers, history professor Dr. Donald A. Grinde in particular, the Gayanashagowa is said to have provided significant inspiration to Benjamin Franklin and James Madison in the writing of the United States Constitution.
References
Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
