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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

This book, edited by journalist and scholar, Jose Barreiro, features a collection of essays centering the voices of Haudensaunee Activists and Elders such as Oren Lyons, Katsi Cook, John Mohawk, and Clan Mother Louise McDonald Herne - that advance political and spiritual thought on the power of women, the rights of nature, the importance of long-term thinking, and peace. American Indigenous Democracy: A Call for Interdependence offers an alternative thinking for social organization and governance that resonates with many seeking solutions to contemporary challenges.

The superlative principles of the Great Law of Peace, and their application by these authors, make this wisdom accessible and compelling to a broad audience, inspiring action and change. 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.

Front cover illustration: “Great Tree of Peace” by Oren Lyons

Published by Guani Press

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  • “

    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