Called the "People of the Longhouse," the Iroquois were one of the most influential Native American Nations in our human history. Once inhabiting the lakes and rivers of upper and central New York, these people started one of the first democratic societies in the world.
Deganawida, a Huron prophet, once invisioned a peace amongst his people and amongst all of the Indian Nations. Started by the Iroquois tribe in 1570, this agreement was called the Great Peace, the Confederacy of the League of the Iroquois, or simply the Iroquois League of Nations. During that time, much fighting occurred between the Indian Nations. To establish peace between the many groups, the Iroquois knew that they would need to form a powerful League. Thus, with the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas as its first members, the Confederacy began. .
The purpose of the League was simple: to enforce the newfound peace between the Nations and to obtain the strength to oppose any enemy. Their emblem, an eagle perched on top of a spruce tree, represented vigilance against any opponent. (The spruce tree ended up as the symbol of the Confederacy, its trunk representing the union of the tribes and its roots depicting each of the individual nations.) Combined into a single article, the laws of the Iroquois League of Nations were called the Iroquois Constitution. In naming the rights of the human being, the constitution stated that all actions of the individual were based on his or her own decisions and that all actions of the group depended on the common consent of the group's members. Another law described the fact that man was a part of nature's web and that neither the woodlands nor the earth, as a part of man, could be owned or abused. Sadly, these beliefs were unique to the Native people, though our earth as we know it to be today would have benefited, had other groups shared these beliefs.
