Journal Entry 1: Iroquois Confederacy
Jan. 14, 2021 USA 74
Hi Everyone,
I have used Barbara Lucas teaches as my business name for many years. Until now, no matter how much thought I gave it, I couldn’t develop a website.
I couldn’t because, for many years, I was a pre-k and elementary public-school teacher. As most of you know, these teachers teach all subjects. They must know child development and how children learn as well as all this subject matter.
Then I taught on the Out School platform. I had to name what I really, really, really love to teach. I love to teach language. I love words and the magic that can be done with them. I love that all kinds of words come from the arrangement of only 26 alphabet letters. Wow!
Once I named that language as my area, developing a website was easy.
So. Welcome to my first post on my new website Barbara Lucas teaches!
This site is dedicated to writing the English language so imagine my shock that the very first lesson I’m giving on this site is an American history lesson!
You see, the Capitol of the United States of America was attacked by its own citizens on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.
Usually when a country has a sacred place that place has to do with their religion. In America, the Capitol is considered sacred. It is the place where the rights of all humans are celebrated, honored, and protected.
Perhaps American citizens have forgotten that most of the ideas in the American Constitution come from the Iroquois Confederacy. Perhaps we have forgotten the principles that the Founding Fathers choose as the foundation of this country.
The Iroquois Confederacy were many tribes of Native Americans who formed a confederacy so that the people of their region could live in wellness, prosperity, and peace instead of warring all the time.
They developed the ideas of everyone having a voice and that voice must be heard.
They had the idea that the job of the chief was to make certain that every voice was heard, actually listened to.
They had the idea that every tribe had an equal say in decision-making. It didn’t matter which tribes were rich or which were poor. The size of the tribe didn’t matter. Every tribe had an equal say.
The Iroquois decided what problems were problems for the local tribes to solve and what problems the confederacy needed to solve. In our time, we call this state’s rights versus rights of the federal government.
The American Bill of Rights developed from the experiences the American colonists had with the English government of that time, way back in the 1600 and 1700s.
It is time that we Americans paused and remembered our heritage. Remembering the ideas that came from the Iroquois Confederacy is a good place to pause. Perhaps we need to explore the ideas that these great people developed and gave to the world via the United States of America before we do something stupid and lose it all.
Discover more about the Iroquois Confederacy here: The Native American Government That Inspired the US Constitution – HISTORY
Be relaxed. Have fun. Learn lots.
Dr. Barb
Barbara Lucas, PhD
bslucas@bellsouth.net
Barbara Lucas teaches 