Nice thought but this is historically inaccurate . . . Quote from Stanford University historian Jack Rakove . . . The voluminous records we have for the constitutional debates of the late 1780s contain no significant references to the Iroquois and notes that there are ample European precedents to the democratic institutions of the United States. Statement by Benjamin Franklin himself: It would be a very strange thing, if six Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a Scheme for such a Union … Finally the Iroquois League didnt just include women, it was ruled by women . . . It was a complexly matriarchal society . . . From Wikipedia . . . . The Iroquois are a Mother Clan system, which is gender equal. No person is entitled to own land, but it is believed that the Creator appointed women as stewards of the land. Traditionally, the Clan Mothers appoint leaders, as they have raised children and are therefore held to a higher regard. By the same token, if a leader does not prove sound, becomes corrupt or does not listen to the people, the Clan Mothers have the power to strip him of his leadership. When Americans and Canadians of European descent began to study Iroquois customs in the 18th and 19th centuries, they learned that the people had a matrilineal system: women held property and hereditary leadership passed through their lines. They held dwellings, horses and farmed land, and a womans property before marriage stayed in her possession without being mixed with that of her husband. They had separate roles but real power in the nations. The work of a womans hands was hers to do with as she saw fit. At marriage, a young couple lived in the longhouse of the wifes family. A woman choosing to divorce a shiftless or otherwise unsatisfactory husband was able to ask him to leave the dwelling and take his possessions with him. I knew all this because I had a bunch of Mohawk friends growing up . . . . Used Wikipedia for verification . . .
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 02:35:29 +0000