Liam Kharem
Professor Michael Grove
Composition for WCGI History and Culture
9/21/19
Rhetorical Analysis Regarding Articles Interpretation of Iroquois Effect on American Democracy
Most people in the United States avoid talking about anything regarding Native American cultures and societies pre and post Columbus like the plague. A good way to kill the mood at a dinner party is to bring up the destruction of an entire two continents worth of people along with the culture and traditions that went along with them. If you ask the average joe to describe an aspect of any Native society, they are likely to either come up short or jump straight to stereotypes that originated from usually a single tribe(out of the thousands that existed over a geographic area much larger than Europe). The point is, the intricacies of the humans who lived on our continent before us are absolutely lost on people, especially concerning their political systems. The best and probably most impactful example of a groups influence on the US is Iroquois Confederation and the democracy that they had in place since the 16th century that had a direct effect on the founding father’s formation of American political identity.
The Iroquois Confederation or Five Nations People (now six nations) are the politically independent (even today) people of the Eastern United States that consisted of tribes ranging from the Ohio Valley to New York and beyond. The five major nations that make up this Confederacy are the Mohawks, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and the Seneca. The sixth nation to migrate into Iroquois land was the Tuscarora people. Their form of democracy was based on political independence and independent leadership for each of the nations and a complex constitution called “The Great Law of Peace” which has many shared features with the US constitution and influenced directly many of its clauses.
Now that you have a basic idea of what the Iroquois Confederation is and an idea of how mainstream America views the Native peoples of North America, you have some context which will be important in understanding some texts written about the Iroquois. The texts include an anthropology journal, a New York Times newspaper article from the 1980s, a YouTube video from 2018, and a magazine article from History Today. These genres interact with audiences at different levels of understanding of the Iroquois but are all aimed at people open to the idea of a Native culture being more than just unadvanced disconnected tribes.
The article published in the New York Times “Iroquois Constitution: A Forerunner to Colonists’ Democratic Principles” written by an unnamed staff writer, makes its intentions clear from the title. The main idea and argument of the article is that there is a direct link to be found in the political foundations of United States and the long-running Iroquois democracy. It begins its argument by stating that claim very clearly and progresses to use a quotation from a modern Onondaga chief and professor at the University of Albany, Oren Lyons, who argues for the accurate education of the foundation for American democracy. The brief description given about the tribes of the six nations outlines the positive aspects of their dogma: “peace, equity or justice, and ‘the power of the good minds.’” The use of this chief as a source for making a statement about the positive aspects of the Iroquois constitution is of mixed credibility. On one hand, he is both a scholar and a firsthand expert of the intricacies in the Iroquois political process, however he is also a bias commentator as a leader within one of the nations. Still, however, for the purpose they’re serving the reader has a positive view of the six nations which will make it easier for the author to deliver their argument, which is slanted in favor of the Iroquois. The article doesn’t refer to any other end of the argument and while it is mostly just reporting facts, it is also wording the history in a way that would influence the reader. The tone shifts towards the end of the article, with the last statement being about how the US government betrayed the treaties and agreements formed with the Iroquois and in turn devalued their contribution to the Union. By changing the tone from a more positive description of what the author argues was one of the more advanced societies during that time to a darker ending that makes the reader examine US values from its conception is a powerful tool in reaching the audience emotionally.
The next source is a magazine article from History Today titled “America’s First Nation” and was written by CK Ballatore, a screenwriter who the article mentions was also working on a book regarding disaster relief in Pakistan. Ballatores’ perspective and interest in speaking for the under spoken for is an important element in the style and argument that she develops. With a similar stance as the first author, she is trying to rewrite commonly known American history to include the natives. She structures her argument slightly more clearly and with more backing evidence, including a description of the actual political process that occurred, and direct ties to how they are like specific structures of the US government. For the reader, a more neutral displaying of facts and descriptions makes the article come across as less biased. While she clearly still has a positive view of the Iroquois her writings come off more as educational than as opinionated. One tool that comes in handy throughout the magazine article is repeated quotes by the founding fathers regarding the Confederacy. She uses direct quotes throughout the article and references them even more than that. Compared to the first article, it comes across as a point being taught more than argued. By using a more detached voice in the reading she can reach a wider range of people and include more useful details and facts than the New York Times. However, while it is poised as less of an opinion piece, she is still trying to convince the readers that there is a tie between the United States and the Iroquois.
The article that stands out from the rest is that simply titled “The Iroquois Confederacy” by Dr. Sherman Williams, written in 1905(a time only a century away from when the Iroquois were still thriving. It is an academic article from The New York State Historical Association. From the title alone, the tone in this one is clearly more neutral than the rest. Being sponsored by the historical society of the state where the Iroquois existed makes it more legit than it being from a random publication or personal social media. The audience consists of people in the field of studying New York state/indigenous history and probably students like myself looking for an accurate source to learn from. Sherman begins this piece with a brief history of the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy and its interactions with the surrounding ethnic groups. Sherman speaks at length about how militaristic the Iroquois were and that they conquered much of the East coast of America and into Canada. At point he mentions how the Mohegans were so terrified of the Iroquois that whenever they were seen in Mohegan territory “they would flee in terror screaming ‘A Mohawk! A Mohawk!”’ (11) Later in the text he adds, “They were the strongest, in many ways the noblest, and altogether the most interesting aboriginal people on this continent north of Mexico.”(13)
The tactic of laying out a more balanced writing of the Five Nations People gives Sherman an edge over the others and automatically bestows him with more credibility. Sherman diverts his focus away from their relations with outside cultures and European colonizers and outlines the complex social system that took place within their nations. He clearly has a fascination for the culture and describes in detail their architectural, family, gender, political traditions. The article ends with Sherman taking a stand for the Iroquois voice and recommending that the information be taught so one of the most influential civilizations to ever exist in the Americas is not forgotten.(14-18) Compared to the New York Times and History Today articles, Sherman’s is significantly more detailed and gives a more realistic description of Iroquois society. Instead of framing them as either an unadvanced and idol people or as a peaceful and advanced society that was almost superhuman, he points out both the extraordinary and the darker parts of their world.
The final text is a YouTube video from the channel History Civilis. Obviously, this is the most modern genre at use and utilizes very different moods, language, and structure than a written text. In general, there is a more jovial atmosphere (while still being educational). I can infer from this that it is being aimed more at younger people who have an interest in history but aren’t quite up for the task of reading a complicated piece of writing. For this reason, it may be the most effective and most direct at getting its points across out of all the articles but requires some follow up research to validate all the details. One major idea throughout the video is that the historical comparison of the Iroquois and the Roman Empire is “reductive and lazy, and fundamentally wrong.” He argues that the Iroquois require their own classification and should be referred to by their true name “Haudenosaunee.” Right off the bat History Civilis makes it clear that the channel doesn’t conform to the mainstream history education and wants to dive deeper on the issue. It’s a lot easier to get people on board with something when speaking rather than writing. Especially with academic writings, the sense of a lack of authorship can pull the reader out of the text. The emotion and confidence present in the narration of the history of the Iroquois makes it a lot easier to fall in line with what he’s saying. Now that he has the viewers’ attention, he actually educates them with a detailed summary of the history and of the political breakdown, comparable to the academic article.
After reviewing the content and devices used in the four different sources on the Iroquois confederacy, I realized how different texts talking about the same thing from a similar perspective could be. While they were all attempting to shed light on what they consider an important precursor civilization to the one we are a part of now, they had different audiences, and all synthesized the information at different levels of difficulty and depth. Doing an in-depth analysis of rhetoric like this was vital in being able to conduct more proper resource in the future. I’ll be able to piece apart texts more efficiently.
Works Cited
C.K. Ballatore. “America’s First Nation.” History Today, 1 April 2017, 51-53.
Staff Writer. “Iroquois Constitution: A Forerunner to Colonists’ Democratic Principles.”
The New York Times, 28 June. 1987. Accessed 20th September 2019.
“The Iroquois Confederacy.” YouTube, uploaded by History Civilis, 20 June 2018,
Williams, Sherman. “The Iroquois Confederacy.” Proceedings of the New York Historical Association, Vol. 4, 1904, pp. 9-18.
