Indigenous American Democracy:
A Call for Interdependence

Indigenous American Democracy: A Call for Interdependence

Through conversations with Elders, wisdom keepers, scholars, and advocates, this book reveals the enduring political philosophy of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and its relevance to the defining challenges of our time.

About the book

About the book

The superlative principles of the Great Law of Peace, and their application by modern elders and recent ancestors, make this wisdom accessible and compelling to a broad audience, inspiring action and change beyond awareness alone. Recognizing the contributions of Indigenous peoples to American democracy is not only essential for fostering better relations between Native and non-Native peoples, but creates immense opportunity for developing solutions to the defining crises of our time.

  • The world needs to consider the knowledge of Native cultures. In American Indigenous Democracy, our Haudenosaunee relatives have crafted a crucial message for our times. The Great Law of Peace, their ancestral way of governance, their ‘constitution,’ is discussed and offered here for its Indigenous genius, as a way to deepen and re-humanize government and public life in the United States.

    Dr. Henrietta Mann, Southern Cheyenne, Sun Dance Elder, academic, and activist who pioneered the creation of Native American Studies programs

  • The story Americans tell about their Constitution has always been incomplete. American Indigenous Democracy: A Call for Interdependence repairs that omission, recovering the living political traditions of Native Peoples as a constitutive force in the founding of the United States, not its backdrop. In the era when democratic norms are under siege, that recovery is not merely scholarly: it is necessary.

    Thomas W. Krise, President, University of Guam (2018–2023), under whose presidency the university adopted an Island Wisdom framework centering higher education in Indigenous Knowledge

The world needs to consider the knowledge of Native cultures. In American Indigenous Democracy, our Haudenosaunee relatives have crafted a crucial message for our times. The Great Law of Peace, their ancestral way of governance, their ‘constitution,’ is discussed and offered here for its Indigenous genius, as a way to deepen and re-humanize government and public life in the United States.

Dr. Henrietta Mann, Southern Cheyenne, Sun Dance Elder, academic, and activist who pioneered the creation of Native American Studies programs

The story Americans tell about their Constitution has always been incomplete. American Indigenous Democracy: A Call for Interdependence repairs that omission, recovering the living political traditions of Native Peoples as a constitutive force in the founding of the United States, not its backdrop. In the era when democratic norms are under siege, that recovery is not merely scholarly: it is necessary.

Thomas W. Krise, President, University of Guam (2018–2023), under whose presidency the university adopted an Island Wisdom framework centering higher education in Indigenous Knowledge

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