How Native Americans protected their societies from tyranny

When the founding fathers of the United States drafted the Constitution, they learned from history that democracy was likely to fail – to find someone who would fool the people by giving him full power and then put an end to democracy.

They designed checks and balances to protect against the accumulation of power they had discovered while studying ancient Greece and Rome. But there were others in North America who had also seen the dangers of certain forms of government and had designed their own checks and balances to protect themselves against tyranny: the Native Americans.

Although most Americans are unaware of it today, there were large centralized civilizations across much of North America during the tenth through twelfth centuries. They built huge cities and major irrigation projects across the continent. Cahokia from the twelfth centuryon the banks of the Mississippi River, had a central city the size of London at the time. The vast 12th century civilization of the Huhugam had several towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants and a total population of perhaps 50,000 in the southwestern desert.

The ruins of these structures still stand in remote places more than a thousand years later. Phoenix, St. Louis And North Georgia.

The American colonists and founders thought Native American societies were simple and primitive – but they weren’t. As research has shown, including my own, and as I explain it in my book: “Native Nations: A Millennium in North AmericaNative American communities were extensive consensus democracies, many of which had survived for generations thanks to careful attention to the checks and balances of power.

Powerful rulers led many of these civilizations, combining political and religious power, just as the monarchs of Europe in later centuries would argue divine right to rule.

In the 13th century, however, a The global cooling trend beganwhich is also called the Little Ice Age. Partly because of that cooling, large-scale agriculture became more difficult, and these great civilizations struggled to feed their populations. Elites began to hoard wealth. The people wanted change.

Spread out

The residents of North America’s major cities responded to these tensions by undoing the centralization of power and wealth. Some rebelled against their leaders. Others simply left the cities and spread to smaller towns and farms. Across the continent they built smaller, more democratic and more egalitarian societies.

Huge numbers left the realm of Cahokia completely. They found places where game could still be hunted and forests full of trees for firewood and construction, both of which had fallen into disrepair near Cahokia due to rapid growth.

The population of the central city of Cahokia fell from perhaps 20,000 people to just 3,000 in 1275. At some point the elite also left, and by the end of the 15th century the cities of Cahokia’s empire had disappeared completely.

Stimulating committed democracy

As they formed these new and more dispersed societies, the people who had overthrown or fled the great cities, and their overly powerful leaders, sought to avoid the enchanting leaders who made seductive promises in difficult times. Therefore, they designed complex political structures to discourage centralization, hierarchy, and inequality and to encourage shared decision-making.

These societies deliberately created balanced power structures. For example, the oral history of the Osage Nation records that there was once one great chief who was a military leader, but the council of older spiritual leaders known as the “Little Old Men” decided to balance that chief’s authority with that of another hereditary head, who would be responsible for keeping the peace.

Another way some societies balanced power was through family clans. Clans communicated and worked together in multiple cities. They could work together to balance the power of city leaders and councils.

An ideal of leadership

Many of these societies required that all people – men, women and children – be brought together for important political, military, diplomatic and land use decisions. Hundreds or even thousands could show up, depending on how important the decision was.

They strove for consensus, even if they did not always achieve it. In some societies it was common for the losing party to quietly leave the meeting if they could not agree with the others.

Leaders generally governed by facilitating decision-making in council meetings and public gatherings. They gave gifts to promote cooperation. They heard and helped resolve disputes between neighbors over land and resources. Power and prestige lay not so much in amassing wealth, but in ensuring that wealth was distributed wisely. Leaders earned support in part because they were good providers.

‘Quiet consultation’

The Native American democracy that the US founders were probably most aware of was the Iroquois Confederacy. They call themselves the Haudenosauneethe “people of the longhouse,” because the nations of the confederation must get along like several families in a longhouse.

In their carefully balanced system, women led the clans, which were responsible for local decisions about land use and urban planning. Men were the representatives of their clans and nations on the Haudenosaunee council, which made decisions for the confederation as a whole. Each council member, a so-called roaner, was elected by a clan mother.

The Haudenosaunee Great Law a roaner has a high standard: “The thickness of their skin will be seven wingspans – that is, they will withstand anger, offensive actions and criticism. Their hearts will be full of peace and good will.” In the council, “all their words and actions will be characterized by calm deliberation.”

The law said that the ideal Royaner always “watch and listen for the good of all the people and have always in view not only the present but also the generations to come, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground—the unborn of the future nation.”

Of course, people do not always live in accordance with their values, but the laws and traditions of indigenous nations encouraged peaceful discussions and open-mindedness. Many Europeans were struck by the difference. The French explorer La Salle noted with admiration of the Haudenosaunee in 1678 that “during important meetings they discuss without raising their voices and without getting angry.”

Politicians, government officials, and everyday Americans can find inspiration in the models of democracy created by Native Americans centuries ago. There was an additional ingredient for political and social balance: the leaders looked ahead and sought to protect the well-being of every person, even those not yet born. The people in return had a responsibility not to involve their royaners in less serious matters, which is what the Great Law of Haudenosaunee’trivial matters.”

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