The Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) consists of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora peoples. The Great Law of Peace is the Oral Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Law was written on Wampum Belts, conceived by Dekanawidah, known as the Great Peacemaker and his spokesman Hiawatha. The laws were first recorded by means of Wampum symbols on/about 1451 AD. They are divided into 116 articles and are symbolized by and Eastern White Pines Tree called the Tree of Peace. The Democratic ideas of the Great Law of Peace influenced the federal structure of the U.S. Constitution and provided inspiration to Benjamin Franklin and James Monroe. On October 4, 1988, the U.S. Congress passed Concurrent Resolution 331 to recognize the influence of the Iroquois Constitution upon the development of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
