ABSTRACT
Embedded in the various statements respecting the influence of the Iroquois form of government on the later American one are two quite distinct ideas. The historian Paul A. W. Wallace is another, stating that the Iroquois League "provided a model for, and an incentive to, the transformation of the thirteen colonies into the United States of America". Decisions of the League council required unanimous consent for adoption. In theory, each sachem chief held veto power. In practice, the sachems attempted to find a solution to each question through extended discussion. The Iroquois, Morgan declared, "achieved for themselves a more remarkable civil organization, and acquired a higher degree of influence, than any other race of Indian lineage, except those of Mexico and Peru." Circumstantial evidence, however, suggests it is the ideas of another Iroquois, J. N. B. Hewitt, that are recalled in many recent statements asserting that the Iroquois League provided a model for the United States Constitution.
