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Forgotten Founders: How the American Indian Helped Shape Democracy

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I read this book with awe. It is carefully researched with rich archival and primary sources. It is well written and filled with insightful observations in every chapter. It is necessary read for all Americans, in fact all who care about government. If you feel that something special happened on this continent, but are not sure about the details of what took place, this book will reinforce the ideal that democracy as an institution came from America. Europeans had no idea how a government by the people could possibly succeed. The native Americans long experimented with a form of representative government that was grassroots, not top down as practiced in Europe. The framers of the constitution fully appreciated the form of government practiced by the native Americans incorporated those ideals into the founding documents of our nation. This book will fill a gap in education and make you proud of practicing a form of government that originated with the native people of America. It is a spirit of government that at its best is the ideal of all the common people of the earth. To remain free of tyranny, each generation of citizens needs to relearn the founding principles of our form of government. This is an extraordinary starting point.

This is an amazing book! I stumbled across it while looking into the "silly rumor" that the US Constitution was based on Native-American beliefs.

This book tells a factual, fast-paced story about how the Founding Fathers (Franklin, Jefferson, et al) were influenced by the Native-Americans. I am still in awe. Every American needs to hear this story. It makes me wonder what else was I wasn't taught in school.

If you have any interest in US history, government, or philosophy--read this book.

While researching a tretise on the American concept of "Liberty" I came across this book. It is well written and provides and easy going but eye opening view of the native american contribution to this basic American concept. Although much of the mainstream literature in political theory and moral philosophy leads to European sources this little gem is equal to all.

This is one of my favorite books whose foundations in principles surpass even the Egyptians principles that are falsely accredited to Greek so-called philosophers that plagiarized this sacred knowledge.

It sounds really nice . . . but to support the claims this book makes one needs to have solid, historical records for it. There are no such records, at all. There is a lingering claim that the preamble to the Constitution, beginning with the words "We the People . . ." is derived from a chant used to open the old meetings of the Iroqouis confederacy. If so, the words would have been changed greatly to to something that fits the United States; which is what is in the Constitution.

The laws and structure of the US Constitution come from Baron de Montesquieu's book The Spirit of Laws. The philosophical spirit of the Declaration of Independence, which is inherent throughout the Constitution, (especially in the Bill of Rights) comes from John Locke. Both of these contributions from the Europe of the Enlightenment are long-acknowledeged facts; it has the memoirs and records of people like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton to support it, and is supported by any constitutional scholar or expert one might care to talk with. Also, if one knows the real history, and knows that people like Jefferson where initially opposed to the US Constitution, because they feared a powerful Federal government that would result, then they should realize that this could not have come from the Iroquois, as they had only a very loose and informal agreement of tribal cooperation, between different bands who were united only by proximity and common Amerind language, and themselves probably would have been put off by the Federal system which the constitution created, just as the anti-Federalists like Jefferson were. If anything, the Articles of Confederation, which the Constitution replaced, would have born much greater resemblance to any Amerind system of union.

Once all the facts have been counted in the inventory, then this notion appears to be very silly, and it is laughed at today by the vast majorty of historians, (the one who practice 'solid' history, anyway) and those who support it only have Johanson's flimsy, preciously stated arugument to follow, and have not looked into the issue in an empirical manner.