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On June 11, 1776 while the question of independence was
being debated, the visiting Iroquois chiefs were formally invited into
the meeting hall of the Continental Congress. There a speech was
delivered, in which they were addressed as "Brothers" and told
of the delegates' wish that the "friendship" between them
would "continue as long as the sun shall shine" and the
"waters run." The speech also expressed the hope that the new
Americans and the Iroquois act "as one people, and have but one
heart." After this
speech, an Onondaga chief requested permission to give Hancock an Indian
name. The Congress graciously consented, and so the president was
renamed "Karanduawn, or the Great Tree." With the Iroquois
chiefs inside the halls of Congress on the eve of American Independence,
the impact of Iroquois ideas on the founders is unmistakable. History is
indebted to Charles Thomson, an adopted Delaware, whose knowledge of and
respect for American Indians is reflected in the attention that he gave
to this ceremony in the records of the Continental Congress.
from Exemplar
of Liberty, Native America and the Evolution of Democracy,
Chp.8, "A
New Chapter, Images of native America in the writings of Franklin,
Jefferson, and Paine"
[Taken from: http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/
]
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