Founders

Tennessee Tea Party Advocates Whitewashing History of the Founders to Eliminate References to Slave Ownership and Indian Dispossession

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here, from the SBM Blog, which links to other blogs.

Excerpt from the Memphis Commercial Appeal coverage:

Regarding education, the material they distributed said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.”

That would include, the documents say, that “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.”

The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”

Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.

Did Indian Nations Influence the American Founders?

Matthew L.M. Fletcher6 Comments

Whether or not the Founders or Framers — the people who helped to form the American government — influenced the structure of the United States government is a fairly raucous debate that recurs again and again. We are reminded of it by the recent posting of Erik Jensen’s 1991 paper repudiating the connection between the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace and the American constitutional structure of federalism (here). Shortly thereafter (in 1993), Robert Miller published a paper purporting to show both significant “positive” and “negative” influences from tribal nations (not just the Haudenosaunee) on the Framers (Miller’s paper here). And there are numerous other studies in other fields, some of which get pretty vituperative.

We are struck by the superficial aspects of the origins of both the Haudenosaunee Confederation and the United States — uniting to confront a common enemy, it would seem.

And we are struck by the amount of scholarly (and other) literature that seeks a connection between the Haudenosaunee and Ben Franklin, and the amount of writing generated to harshly debunk those theories.

We want your opinions on this subject. Why is it important to many Indians that the American Constitution have Indian roots or influence? Why is it important to others that the American Constitution be free of Indian roots or influence?

And finally: Do you think the American Constitution would look the same if the Founders had no knowledge of tribal nations?