“The Great Law of Peace,”
-Documents the formation of a League of Six Nations: Cayuga, Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, and later on, the Tuscarora nations.
This constitution granted the government power to:
-regulate commerce
-enter treaty agreements
-make war and peace with the Indian tribes
Basically, it united the five nations into a League of Nations, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, which became the basis for the Iroquois Confederacy Constitution.
“Each nation maintained its own leadership, but they all agreed that common causes would be decided in the Grand Council of Chiefs.”
-A fun fact about the Iroquois is that up to 60 people would live in a single longhouse, and as long as there was food, no one ever went hungry in the village.
-They freely shared things, and also, there was a trail connecting the five nations known as the Iroquois Trail.
-The Iroquois Great Council still meets today!
The Iroquois Constitution was written on Wampam belts, by “The Great Peacemaker,” or Dekanawidah, and his spokesman, Hiawatha.