The Native American Government That Inspired the US Constitution

When the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in 1787 to debate what form of government the United States should have, there were no contemporary democracies in Europe from which to draw inspiration. The most democratic forms of government that one of the convention members personally encountered were those of the Native American nations. Of particular interest was the Iroquois Confederacy, which historians say wielded significant influence over the US Constitution.

What evidence is there that the delegates studied Indigenous governments? Descriptions of them can be found in the three-volume manual that John Adams wrote for the convention examining different types of government and ideas about government. It included European philosophers like John Locke and Montesquieu, whom American history textbooks have long identified as constitutional influences; but it also included the Iroquois Confederacy and other Indigenous governments, which many delegates knew from personal experience.

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