The Iroquois Confederacy: Model for US Democracy

Digital Wampum Testimony of the Iroquois

Tree Media (2015)

Film Review

This is a series of eight short vignettes about the Haudenosnunee Confederacy formed in North America some time between the 12th and 16th century. Also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, this governance model inspired the Articles of Confederation adopted by European settlers following the US War of Independence.

Narrated by Chief Oren Lyons, this oral history concerns a legendary Peace Maker who induced 49 leaders from four warring nations to gather at Lake Onondago (in central New York state) to iron out a permanent system of peace, equity and “the power of good minds to make good decisions.”

The six nations who made up the Haudenosunee Confederacy at the time of European settlement: the Mohawk, Oneida, Tuscarora, Seneca and Onondago.

Part 2 of the series concerns lacrosse, now a world sport, a game devised by the Onondago, Parts 3, 5 and 6 concern predictions the Peace Maker made about climate change, Part 4 concerns the tradition of “scalping,” which was devised by Europeans as part of their campaign of extermination against Native Americans, Part 7 concerns the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” (which denies property rights to all non-Christians in European colonized territories), based on a proclamation issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493.

 

 

Ireland, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Origin of Scalping

The Story of Ireland Part 2

BBC (2011)

Film Review

Part 2 of the Story of Ireland covers the period 1100 – 1500 AD

During the 12th century Ireland was ruled by five provincial kings. One of them, Dermot of Lenster, sought an alliance with the Anglo-Norman (English) king Henry II to make himself king of all Ireland. Pope Adrian, who disagreed with the gnostic Irish version of Catholicism, granted permission for Henry to invade.

After Ireland became an English colony, new Anglo-Norman lords claimed the best land for their estates and created an Irish parliament and a judicial system based on English common law. However they held no sway outside the townships and were subject to constant raids by Irish peasants.

After the Black Plague hit Ireland in 1348, many English lords fled back to England and the Gaelic kings regrouped and reclaimed their old estates.

During his reign (1509-1547), Henry VIII made several half-hearted attempts to subdue the Irish lords. His daughter Elizabeth I would engage Sir Walter Raleigh to subdue Ireland by destroying its infrastructure and massacring its civilians.*

Thirty thousand Irish died under Raleigh, many from famine.

Raleigh could not subdue the northern province of Ulster, and which allied with King Phillip of Spain in 1601 in an unsuccessful attempt to retake Ireland from England.

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*Ireland was the birthplace of warfare directed against civilians, also known as “total warfare,” “irregular warfare,” or “counterinsurgency.” It was here the practice of scalping and paying bounties for severed heads or scalps was first introduced. For centuries, it has been blamed on Native Americans, but it was initiated by the English in Ireland.