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Haudenosaunee 'Great Law of Peace' presented as a centuries-old constitutional model
Summary
A Megatrend feature traced the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace (the segment dated its founding to 08/22/1142), described its council structure and 117 articles, and suggested its practices influenced early U.S. framers including Benjamin Franklin.
A recorded feature on Megatrend described the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace as an 800-plus-year-old confederation constitution with procedures for leader selection and collective decision-making.
The narrator said the Great Law of Peace contains 117 articles and unites five nations — Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca — under a shared council while allowing each nation self-governance. The segment described consensus-style decision-making ("one mind") and a system of checks and deliberating bodies that required broad agreement before collective action.
The feature cited the confederacy's founding date in the segment as 08/22/1142 and noted symbolic elements such as the white pine tree of peace. It also said Benjamin Franklin printed minutes and engaged with confederacy leaders, presenting that documented contact as part of a chain of influence on early U.S. political thought.
Host Pat Fahey framed the segment as historical context and contrasted the Great Law's consensus orientation with the United States' adversarial majority-rule approach.
What the broadcast presented: the program played an educational piece that summarized traditional accounts of the Haudenosaunee confederacy, emphasized the role of women in governance in the Great Law, and highlighted procedural differences compared with modern U.S. institutions.
