The Great Law of Peace

The Great Law of Peace, the constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), is one of the oldest participatory democracies known to humanity. Established long before European contact, it united the Five Nations—Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—into a league governed by principles of peace, equity, consensus, and spiritual harmony. At its core was the idea of collective governance through council, where clan mothers chose male chiefs (sachems) and decisions were made with future generations in mind—what they called considering the “seventh generation.” This constitutional system emphasized balance between male and female leadership, the importance of oratory, and the sacred duty of law to reflect divine order. Many scholars—and even Founding Fathers like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson—studied and borrowed elements of the Great Law when forming the U.S. Constitution, though the Iroquois system was more egalitarian and spiritually grounded. From the Moorish perspective, the Great Law of Peace echoes ancient indigenous principles found across Amexem, affirming that the Americas were not lawless before European invasion, but governed by divine and natural law rooted in ancestral wisdom.