Personally, I find it far more fascinating to focus on the convincing evidence of the influence of the Native Americans on the founding fathers. This research has been collected by dozens of scholars such as Roy Fadden, John Mohawk, Bruce Johansen, Donald Grinde, Oren Lyons and more.
For crying out loud, the Indians were right there with all the famous men in that hot building in Philadelphia in the pivotal summer of 1776. They were right there! The Second Continental Congress actually invited them to observe their debates over independence and give their feedback.
Contemporary image based on oral traditions of how the Ancestors influenced the Founding Fathers.
(Image by By Iroquois artist John Kahionhes Fadden, Director of the Six Nations Museum, NY) Details DMCA
In May and June of 1776 twenty-one Iroquois sachems camped out in the room above Congress on the second floor, and Secretary of the Congress Charles Thomson, himself an adopted member of the Delaware Indians and whose Indian name translated to "Man Who Tells the Truth," recorded their visit in detail in the official minutes for the Congress.
MAB: Wow, Bob I never learned that in American History class! That's enlightening!
BH: Right! But that's not all. At the end of this observation period, they gave John Hancock, the president of the Congress, an Indian name, Karanduan, or the Great Tree, likening him to their own Great Law of Peace, the central hub around which all their laws radiated.
John Hancock c. 1776
(Image by (Not Known) Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Author Not Given) Details Source DMCA
And you're absolutely right in terms of what they left out. We believe the main reason that the Iroquois system of the Great Law of Peace survived for hundreds of years (successfully maintaining peace between sovereign nations), and the U.S. system has only marginally succeeded over the past two hundred years (going to war at least once a decade and providing unequal opportunity for health and security of its citizens) is the missing element of the clan system and their value for the power of women.
Corn Maiden
(Image by By Iroquois artist John Kahionhes Fadden, Director of the Six Nations Museum, NY) Details DMCA
The Iroquois acknowledged that men and women had different strengths, but considered them equally powerful. In fact, due to their quite different creation stories, they considered women more powerful than men in many ways, and would never dream of attempting any action without their guidance.
MAB: I agree about women being more powerful. As an example, there is a video on social media which shows a couple of men who get hooked up to a labor pain simulator because they want to prove that their wives exaggerated the pain of childbirth. Of course, they begged for mercy as their wives high-fived each other!
And that is only one of the ways in which women are stronger than men. Also, women are typically more apt to want to cooperate and they are less inclined to let testosterone-induced competitiveness push them into war.
In Michael Moore's film "Where to Invade Next," he interviewed the women who ran the only Icelandic bank that survived the country's famous financial collapse. Here's the clip in which they explain why they believe a women's bank succeeded:
Secret Life of Lady Liberty by Dr. Bob Hieronimus and Laura Cortner
(Image by Dr. Bob Hieronimus and Laura Cortner) Details DMCA
It seems that a generous application of the feminine perspective can be healthy for humanity. Do you see any ways that we can get back to more of the feminine influences here in the US? Can the archetype of Lady Liberty help us?
LEC: Oh yes! And thank you for this opportunity to talk about Chapter One in our book, The Secret Life of Lady Liberty!
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