Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

Hey Brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

Back in 1744, colonial leaders from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland, met with a delegation from

what at the time was one of the great powers on the North American continent.

It was a confederation of Native American nations who called themselves the Hadenoshani,

although many of us are more familiar with their French name, the Iroquois.

As recounted in James Wilson's book, The Earth Shall Weep, a history of Native America, the Native leader

Knaissidigo expressed frustration at the colonists quarreling with one another.

He advised union and better agreement, and specifically that they follow the example of the

Hadnoshani who had established a well-organized system of self-government codified

in the great law of peace with both the Central Council and checks and balances the protected individual

freedoms.

It's written that he said, We are powerful confederacy, and by observing the same methods

our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power.

Among those in attendance was Benjamin Franklin, who, in Wilson's account, took careful notes and later used some

of the Hoddenoshani's ideas about government a decade later in a proposal for a confederation

of the American colonies.

The Albany plan championed by Franklin never came to fruition, but the notion of the colonies

cooperating and governing themselves was a big step toward what eventually became the

United States of America.

Over the years, some have argued that we ought to give the Haudinoshani credit for inspiring

the birth of the American democracy, and have even suggested that the U.S. Constitution and the system of self-government that it created

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