🦅 The Great Lawgivers

• The Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) formed their confederacy around 1142 AD—over 600 years before the U.S. Constitution.

• The Great Law of Peace established democratic principles including separation of powers, checks and balances, and individual freedoms.

• Benjamin Franklin specifically cited the Haudenosaunee model when proposing colonial unity in 1754.

• In 1988, the U.S. Congress officially acknowledged the Confederacy's influence on the Constitution.