American Indian Influences on the U.S. Constitution, Research Paper Example

The intellectual theories that helped shaped the U.S. Constitution are often traced back to various European discourses based upon principles of state sovereignty and the rationality of the Enlightenment. But this overlooks some of the influences Native American political thought potentially had upon the formation of this document. Some historians, such as James Mann, have argued that Iroquois governmental life informed the constitution, insofar as Indian concepts of freedom helped emphasize the legal references to liberty that are so prevalent in official American discourse.

The link between these two political worlds is primarily traced back to the Native Americans’ Great Law of Peace. This legal framework emphasized what could be interpreted as democratic principles, such as the election of a singular war chief from each nation, who will meet in the case of emergency. This resembles a form of representative parliamentary politics.

However, the claim that this influenced the United States Constitution is dubious, since similar forms of government existed in Europe. For example, historians like Jack Rakove note that Indian political law was much more liberal in certain areas than the U.S. Constitution, such as majority rule in the latter as opposed to the Native American concept of consensus rule. Furthermore, the notion of a federal government was foreign to the Native Americans, who emphasized tribal autonomy above agreements that linked the tribes together.

Because of such differences, it appears that the claims by certain historians of Native American influences on the Constitution is a rhetorical move which attempts to heal the wounds between Native American and the colonists. By saying that one set of ideas informed the other, this implies that the colonists respected the Indians’ way of life and that a type of intellectual dialogue existed between the two parties. This clearly ignores the genocide of and land-theft from the Native Americans, issues which have never been addressed in American public discourse, let alone the U.S. Constitution.