This year, the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and subsequent formation of its representative democracy.
As the founding fathers began crafting what they hoped would be a more perfect union, they borrowed from European thinkers, historical political experiments, and Native nations. Most notably is the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a powerful confederacy of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations and recognized as the oldest participatory democracy formed around 1142. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy governed its nation members on the principles of unity, liberty, and equality while emphasizing consensus and collective decision-making.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy successfully prevented tyranny by creating elaborate governance structures requiring consensus within intentionally balanced power structures. This careful distribution of power ensured that no individual could make unilateral decisions impacting the community or member nations. Leaders were selected for specific skills, governed by facilitating decision-making in council meetings and public gatherings. They also often gave gifts to encourage community participation and to share wealth, leading to earned support in part by being good providers.
The democratic principles of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy provided the framers of the U.S. Constitution with a practical example of federalism—a system in which powers are divided between a central authority (the federal government) and constituent political units (the now 50 states). The U.S. Senate officially acknowledged Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s influence on the U.S. Constitution in 1988, highlighting how Native governance shaped our country’s democratic ideals.
And while many of the founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin deeply admired the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and incorporated elements of its government into the U.S. Constitution such as unity, representation, and a separation of powers, other significant aspects were rejected, such as hereditary leadership roles and excluding women from the electoral process.
As the United States was being founded, Native people systemically faced exclusion from the political process. Indeed, the U.S. significantly expanded its power and size through war, broken treaties with Native nations, exclusionary laws, legislative acts, and voting disenfranchisement.
Yet despite all these efforts, Native voices continue to persevere. Native nations continue to strive towards the principle that authority is derived from the people’s consent. The Great Binding Law, Gayanashagowa, which is the Constitution of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, required the people to “look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground—the unborn of the future Nation”— the Seven Generations philosophy.
Today we bear witness to a strained democracy within the U.S.—one that is focused on restricting our voices and our full participation in democracy. On the one hand, the U.S. has become more inclusionary since its founding by extending the right to vote to Black men, women, and finally to Natives through the Indian Citizenship Act (Snyder Act) in 1924. Yet even today we continue to see the systemic attempt to suppress voting rights across the country.
In 1964 the Civil Rights Act ushered in a host of legal protections against discrimination and voter disenfranchisement while also enacting distinct methods of enforcing these rights. Yet even today states and the federal government are deliberately attempting to hollow and dismantle these same protections and means of enforcement.
The American Indian College Fund recognizes that the historical and lived experiences of Native people are deeply impacted in many negative ways by the founding of the United States. We also recognize that the protection of inherent and acquired rights as American Indians and Alaska Natives is vital and essential to our self-determination and identities.
While all land in the United States is not in the possession of Native people, it is our land: the source of our cultures, kinship, and languages. This land knew democracy first. For that reason, the American Indian College Fund is exploring the meaning of democracy during the United States’ 250th anniversary year. We invite our tribal college students to join us in this exploration.
We are inviting currently enrolled tribal college students to share your spoken and written words through videos and blogs to answer these questions:
- What does democracy mean to you as a Native person? You may include how democracy exists within your tribal community both historically and today.
- How do you want Native history and peoples to be included in the conversations around America’s 250th anniversary?
- What are ways you think we can reclaim democracy as Native people and as Americans?
Democracy Initiative Blog/Video Submission Rules/Details
- All currently enrolled tribal college students who submit either a blog or video will receive a $25 gift card and automatically be entered into a raffle for a $500 cash prize.
- Only one gift card per tribal college student.
- Please submit your blogs and videos through the College Fund’s portal. All submissions are subject to review prior to posting to ensure appropriate language and subject matter focus.
- Submitters are encouraged to share their honest perspectives while respecting the audience and intention of the project.
- All written (blog) and video entries must be submitted between March 15 and June 15, 2026 to be eligible to receive a gift card and to be entered into the raffle.
- The Democracy Initiative Raffle will take place on July 1, 2026. Four eligible tribal college students will be selected in the raffle to receive $500 each. All four winners will be notified by email and included in our social media posts.
