Pictogram of Tsagiglalal, or “She Who Looks,” in the Columbia River Gorge. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

When America’s founders designed the Constitution, they were learning from history that democracy would likely fail: find someone to trick the people into giving them full power, and then end democracy.

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

Although most Americans today do not know it, there were great centralized civilizations in much of North America between the 10th and 12th centuries. They built huge cities and large irrigation projects across the continent. 12th century Cahokiaon the banks of the Mississippi River, it had a central city the size of London at the time. The extensive 12th century huhugam civilization It had several cities of over 10,000 and a total population of perhaps 50,000 in the desert southwest.

The ruins of these constructions remain, more than 1,000 years later, in places as remote as Phoenix, Saint Louis and northern Georgia.

American settlers and founders thought that Native American societies were simple and primitive – but they weren’t. As research, including my own, has discovered, and as Yo I explain in my book, “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America”, Native American communities were consensus-crafted 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, much as the monarchs of Europe in later centuries would claim power. divine right to rule.

However, in the 13th century, a Global cooling trend beganwhich has been called the Little Ice Age. Partly because of that cooling, large-scale agriculture became more difficult and these great civilizations struggled to feed their people. The elites began to accumulate wealth. People wanted a change.

Spreading

Residents of North America’s large cities responded to these tensions by reversing the centralization of power and wealth. Some rebelled against their leaders. Others simply abandoned the cities and dispersed to smaller towns and farms. Across the continent they built smaller, more democratic and more egalitarian societies.

A large number of them left the kingdom of Cahokia completely. They found places that still had animals to hunt and forests full of trees for firewood and construction, both of which had diminished near Cahokia due to its 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 left as well, and by the end of the 15th century, the cities of the kingdom of Cahokia had completely disappeared.

Promote committed democracy

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

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

Another way some societies balanced power was through family clans. The clans communicated and cooperated in several cities. They could work together to balance the power of municipal chiefs and councils.

A leadership ideal

Many of these societies required convening all people (men, women and children) to make important political, military, diplomatic and land use decisions. Hundreds or even thousands may attend, depending on how momentous the decision is.

They strove to reach consensus, although they did not always succeed. In some societies, it was customary for the losing party to quietly leave the meeting if they were unable to reach an agreement with the others.

Leaders generally governed by facilitating decision-making in council meetings and public meetings. They gave gifts to encourage cooperation. They heard disputes between neighbors over land and resources and helped resolve them. Power and prestige became dependent not on amassing wealth but on ensuring that wealth was shared wisely. Leaders gained support in part by being good providers.

‘Calm deliberation’

The Native American democracy that America’s founders were likely aware of was the Iroquois Confederacy. They call themselves the Haudenosauneethe “longhouse people,” because the nations of the confederacy have to get along as multiple 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. The men were the representatives of their clans and nations on the Haudenosaunee council, which made decisions for the confederation as a whole. Each member of the council, called royaner, was elected by a clan mother.

He Great Haudenosaunee Law demands a high level from a Royaner: “The thickness of their skin will be seven spans, that is, they will be proof of anger, offensive actions and criticism. Their hearts will be filled with peace and goodwill.” In council, “all your words and actions will be marked by calm deliberation.”

The law said that the ideal royaner should always “look and listen for the well-being of all the people and always keep in mind not only the present generations but also those to come, even those whose faces are still beneath the surface of the earth: the unborn of the future Nation.”

Of course, people don’t always live according to their values, but the laws and traditions of native nations encouraged peaceful debate and open-mindedness. Many Europeans were surprised by the difference. The French explorer La Salle in 1678 observed with admiration of the Haudenosaunee that “In important meetings they argue without raising their voices or getting angry..”

Politicians, government officials, and ordinary Americans could find inspiration in the models of democracy created by Native Americans centuries ago. There was an additional ingredient in political and social balance: leaders looked to the future and sought to protect the well-being of all people, even those not yet born. The people, in return, had the responsibility not to involve their royaners in less serious matters, what the Great Haudenosaunee Law called “trivial matters.”

This article is republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.