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Healing the Divided States of America

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My heart is heavy. All across this country our black brothers and sisters experiencing oppression on the front lines are in deep grief and righteous anger. Those killed at the hands of police — George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Freddy Gray — the list of names goes on and on. I’ve witnessed the plight of the black man in America for years, and have been aware of the issues, yet I often feel so powerless to do anything about the gross injustices in the system. If I were black instead of white, I would be dead already, or long ago in prison. Of this I am certain. As it is said, “No Justice, No Peace” and so these continuing injustices disturb my peace.

The injustice is not limited to violence committed against black men and women, but includes violence and oppression committed against other people of color, including the native peoples of North, Central, and South America. My heart goes out to the brothers and sisters raised amongst the legacy of centuries of broken treaties, genocides, and reservations. And to the brothers and sisters and children along the southern border currently detained and violated by ICE.

And yes, oppressions are waged against white people, too. Of course it is true that all lives matter, but shouting such a statement in these times is a form of white-washing, a sleight-of-hand aimed at continued repression of the gross injustices which should be naked for all to see, not the business as usual of “out of sight, out of mind.”

The truth facing us as white people is that the greatest oppression haunting us is not found on the frontlines of police brutality or systemic racism. The greatest oppression facing white people is within the battleground of our own hearts. Racism, inequity, and unsettled injustices destroy our integrity as white people. They destroy our honesty. They destroy our goodwill. They destroy our reverence. They destroy our compassion. They destroy our presence and our ability to listen. And left unchecked, they will ultimately destroy our moral foundations. Unfortunately, this has already happened among some, and rebuilding those foundations may be the work of years or even lifetimes. This isn’t about “white guilt,” it is about restoring our capacities as humans.

The so-called United States of America is founded on three original sins: the genocide and dispossession of native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the early compromisation of our emerging democratic government, which damaged our ability to be unified by denying voice to women, children, the poor, and nature. Until we atone for these three original sins, there will be no justice, and so there will remain no peace. These three wrongs are intertwined around America’s foundations, where they have been steadfastly gnawing away for over two hundred years.

In seeking solutions and answers to today’s troubles, I return again to the Great Laws of Peace, as they were given by the Great Peacemaker, Deganawida, who along with Jigonhsasee and Hiawatha founded the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy about a thousand years ago. Still sovereign today, the Haudenosaunee is one of the longest running democracies in the world.

As a white man, why am I appealing to the Haudenosaunee for guidance in these times, you might ask? For one very simple, and singular reason: without the guidance of the Haudenosaunee, American democracy would not exist (not even in the highly crippled form we have seen). I appeal to the Haudenosaunee not from an attitude of cultural appropriation but from an acknowledgement of history. As the popular saying goes, those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. When you tug at the root of American democracy, the Haudenosaunee democracy is revealed.

The American experiment in democracy was an early version of decolonization, not just from British power, but also set out to mark a departure from European ways and thinking on the whole. As an experiment, it has been largely a failure. The mainstream history books will tell you that democracy was conceived within the minds of founding fathers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, who brilliantly “invented” American democracy. But few if any American school children ever learn of the Onondaga leader named Canassatego, who brought to the colonists at the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744 the inspiration for democracy, based on the Haudenosaunee confederacy of the Six Nations who the Onondaga represented.

Look on the back of a dollar bill and you’ll see a bald eagle. In his left talon he clutches thirteen arrows, signifying the unification of the thirteen original British colonies. In his right talon he clutches an olive branch, symbolizing peace. Above the head of the eagle blaze thirteen stars in a geometric pattern.

All of these symbols derive directly from the Haudenosaunee confederacy, which depicts a bald eagle clutching five arrows symbolizing the original Five Warring Tribes — the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Mohawk, and Oneida. (In 1722 the Tuscarora joined the confederacy adding a sixth arrow.) In the eagle’s other talon he holds a branch of the white pine tree, symbolizing peace. The Great Laws of Peace as told through tradition from Deganawida, are closely bound up with the Iroquois Creation Story, which begins in a heavenly overworld where the trees in the garden blaze with flowers that glow like stars. It was after the uprooting of one of these trees that Sky Woman fell through the darkness to land on Turtle Island. Return again to the geometric relief emblazoned above the head of the eagle on the dollar bill. Nearly that exact same motif — symbolizing the star-flowering trees up in heaven — is found in Iroquoian artwork, often seen in beadwork. This pattern represents Origin and the Original Instructions.

Recall further the Boston Tea Party, when an organized group of rebels calling themselves the Sons of Liberty dressed as American Indians overthrew the British tea in an act of civil disobedience. I point you also to the fact that an Indian is on top of the US Capitol Building. The symbolic parallels don’t stop here but continue on and on.

Structurally, the American democracy parallels that of the Iroquois Confederacy. Representative democracy, a system of checks and balances represented in three divisions, a presumption of innocence until proven guilt, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, an endowment of reason — all these and more originate with the Iroquois Confederacy, though in language they may be cloaked in the garb of Enlightenment philosophers. (Benjamin Rush, however, in an attempt to put more distance between Americans and Europeans, argued for the use of indigenous American languages in science instead of Latin and Greek.)

None of this is accidental. Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and possibly more, were personally mentored in the ways of the Great Laws of Peace by Mohawk elders. John Adams went into a bit of depth regarding the Iroquois’ sachem system in “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America” (1787). He could not have known so much by hearsay alone. He knew because he had been personally acquainted with the Longhouse of the Haudenosaunee. The Great Laws of Peace were at the foundation of this Haudenosaunee democracy. In homage to the American Indian influence, several Haudenosaunee leaders were invited to the Continental Congress on June 11th, 1776 prior to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. An Address to the Indians was penned thus:

“Brothers,

    We hope the friendship that is between us and you will be firm, and continue as long as the sun shall shine and the waters run; that we and you may be as one people, and have but one heart and be kind to one another like brothers.”

Before the meeting concluded, an Onondaga chief gave the president of the meeting, John Hancock, the name Karanduawn “the Great Tree.”

But things would soon grow foul. Whereas among the Haudenosaunee representational voice was given to women, as well as to children, animals, and nature (symbolized by the concept of the Seven Generations), the founding fathers chose to leave these voices out. And whereas the Haudenosaunee practiced complete consensus democracy, the founding fathers instituted the tyranny of the two-thirds majority. Haudenosaunee elders voiced their concerns to the founding fathers, and gave their castigations. Their words went unheeded.

“Our ancestors considered it a great offence to reject the counsel of women, particularly the female governesses [clan mothers]. They were esteemed the mistresses of the soil. Who, said our forefathers, bring us into being? Who cultivates our lands, kindles our fires, and boils our pots, but the women? . . . They entreat that the veneration of our ancestors in favor of the women not be disregarded, and that they may not be despised. . . . The female governesses beg leave to speak with the freedom allowed to women and agreeable to the spirit of our ancestors. They entreat the Great Chief to . . . preserve them in peace, for they are the life of the nation.”

(Spoken by a Haudenosaunee elder, 1814, from “Substance of the Speech of Good Peter to Governor Clinton and the Commissioners of Indian Affairs at Albany.”)

To better understand what went wrong, we have to return to the Peacemaking tradition of Deganawida. Forming the foundations of Haudenosaunee democracy were three pillars outlining the Great Laws of Peace.

The first pillar is the Peace principle: we all have a right given by Creator to live in peace with ourselves, with each other, and to have a place within nature. This isn’t a concept, or a political idea, but it is our birthright, adopted consciously as an attitude as well as a practice. It is a state of balance and tranquility. A resting baby, a dog in the grass, and a person on vacation without a care or a schedule — all share an experience of peace. By tending to this attitude within ourselves, we can cultivate peace, and begin to carry it with us, and this puts us in an interpersonally empowering place. From this first pillar we derive the American constitutional ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, emerging from the inalienable rights first given by the Creator.

The second pillar is the Good Message principle: choose your finest words. Words can promote good or ill, so be conscious of them. Be aware of the results of your words. Practice deep listening, compassion, and give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove you wrong. Don’t gossip or talk about people behind their back. From this second principle we derive the American judicial ideal of innocent until proven guilty, and trial by a jury of one’s peers.

The third pillar is the Unity principle: with the first and second pillars in place — an attitude of peace and the sharing of a good message — deliberate until unity is achieved. Unity is the last word. Unity is the goal of consensus democracy, and it is also at the heart of concepts like the Seven Generations — because if we cannot act in consideration of the ancestors and the unborn, we cannot act in true unity. True unity is inclusive, it does not short cut or cut out. Ultimately, the Unity pillar is the one that was damaged during the birth of the ironically named United States of America. The founding fathers instituted a two-thirds majority rule, in addition to denying voice for women, children, animals, and nature.

So where does this put us now? By making a return trip to the Tree of Liberty, we can see where things went wrong, and that the so-called United States of America was never truly united. After the Revolution came the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Trail of Tears, then the Civil War, then Jim Crow, Women’s Suffrage (which was also inspired by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy), the Civil Rights Movement, Neoliberal Imperialism, and now the continuing traumas combined with the impending collapse of today.

The only way to save American democracy is to start it over again. This doesn’t mean destroying anything or anyone, though these things may happen, understandably. But we start again by taking a step back, finding our peace, speaking our truth, listening deeply with compassion, and admitting our wrong. When we have achieved peace, we can then form coalitions with those in our immediate community, and stand in solidarity with those in other communities. I am pleased to see steps taken in these directions. Change is coming, and change is already here. But keep rebelling, keep practicing civil disobedience, keep rising up. Though some political structures may be salvaged and reinhabited, others may need to be disbanded.

Never forget compassion, never forget to give individuals the benefit of the doubt before they prove you wrong. Choose your words wisely and consider the fruits of your actions. Remember that democracy is a practice, not something to be taken for granted. Remember that the openness, honesty, and integrity of our heart opens the door to healing.

We are working in the ruins right now, nursing back to health a poisoned peace, a poisoned message, and a poisoned unity. Peacemaking is a process and its measure is the health and well-being of the people. Years of strife and disenfranchisement is a testimony that the peacemaking process has not been unfolding socioeconomically nor politically, and so it is time for a reappraisal. It is difficult to rebuild any of the three pillars of peace without the other two — the three are equally interdependent — and that leaves us in a position where we are essentially starting anew.

There will be no peace without justice. Defunding the police and investing in community is a good start. But there is still so much more to do.

The list includes:

  • addressing food insecurity and creating food sovereignty
  • land and ecological justice
  • reparations
  • indigenous rematriation and overall decolonization
  • social and economic justice
  • dismantling white supremacy
  • fostering bioregional resiliency
  • ecological regeneration
  • addressing pollution, environmental destruction, and climate change

May the Haudenosaunee and the Great Laws of Peace provide some inspiration and clarity in these times. May the light of peace and understanding shine a path forward. In truth, reconciliation, culture repair, and healing. And may we remember that life is sacred.

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If you would like to learn more about the true history of American democracy, the Great Laws of Peace and other traditions and teachings of the Haudenosaunee, check out the following resources:

3 thoughts on “Healing the Divided States of America”

  1. THANK YOU so much for educating me on this matter, I was completely unaware of the Great Laws of Peace and the Iroquois Confederacy. I deeply appreciate you sharing your research.

  2. “From this second principle we derive the American judicial ideal of ***guilty until proven innocent***, and trial by a jury of one’s peers.

    Great article, but I think you got that one backwards, brother (at least what the *ideal* is, not how it’s practiced).

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