This Nation: A Gathering of Nations?

Father "Don Jim" Tucker discovered an interesting piece recently:

"The notion of sovereignty is something of a sacred cow. An interesting article questions why that should be and invites a new philosophical discussion of just what precisely sovereignty is, where its authority comes from, and whether it should be considered as sacrosanct as it generally is today. It's good to remember that the concept of a sovereign nation-state as we have today is a very modern notion, and the world is quite imaginable without it."

The article, which appears in a recent edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education, refers to the struggles for self-determination among various ethnic peoples in the world in recent years, particularly those freed by the breakup of the former Soviet Union. But it also speaks at length about an essay written by a now-deceased Congressman:

"That Alan Cranston (1914-2000), the four-term Democratic senator from California, left among his papers an important essay defying the disconnect between fuzzy jurisprudential idea and volatile real-world catalyst makes perfect sense... [His] posthumously published essay, recently issued as The Sovereignty Revolution (Stanford University Press), begins dramatically: 'It is worshiped like a god, and as little understood. It is the cause of untold strife and bloodshed. Genocide is perpetrated in its sacred name. It is at once a source of power and of power's abuse, of order and of anarchy. It can be noble and it can be shameful. It is sovereignty...'

"[Cranston] argues that when people understand sovereignty as the absolute power of a government over its own territory and citizens, a shield against the intervention of other governments, nongovernmental organizations, and outside powers, it is an illegitimate and dangerous medieval idea. At best, sovereignty should be understood as the right of people to determine their own destinies..."

The concept of sovereignty was surely on the minds of many who visited our Nation's capital yesterday, as thousands of Native Americans from the USA, Canada, and elsewhere in this hemisphere gathered to herald the opening of the Smithsonian Institution's newest site:

"The 250,000-square-foot National Museum of the American Indian was built on the last open space on the National Mall. The 4.25-acre site islandscaped to depict treasured habitats...The museum was 15 years in the making. Clad in textured, wheat-colored Kasota limestone from Minnesota, the five-story building's curved lines are reminiscent of rocks shaped by wind and water over thousands of years... About 20,000 American Indians representing more than 515 tribes signed up for the Native Nations Procession along the National Mall."

What most of us know as the Iroquois (a name given to them by the French) are known among themselves as the Haudenosaunee (a name which means "people of the long house"), otherwise known as the Six Nation Confederacy. Originating and still present in what is now upstate New York and southern Ontario, they are comprised of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations. They can rightly claim to be the world's oldest participatory democracy, with a history dating back eight centuries (although the Tuscarora were not admitted until 1715). Research has shown that their own system of laws may have even influenced the US Constitution!

"Feuding and warfare were endemic in the land of the Mohawks which was located on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. A mother Kahetoktha ('End of the Field') takes her daughter Kahetehsuk ('She Walks Ahead') to live in a remote area of bush in order to protect her child. After living there a considerable amount of time the daughter becomes pregnant and the Mother accuses her daughter of wrongdoing. The Mother then has a dream from the messenger of the Great Spirit which reveals her daughter and not been with a man and will have a divine birth and the boy child to be born will be called Tekanawita and his life will be devoted to promoting peace among men. After the dream message is received the Mother and daughter reconcile and the son is born as prophesied. The boy grows quickly and when he is a young man Tekanawita returns to his mother's and grandmother's former settlement to announce to their people the Good Message (kaihwiyoh), the Power (katshatstehsae) and the Peace (shenu) which are the three concepts that together spell out the call to unify the separate nations of the Iriquois..."

I first read the full story of this Nation about twenty years ago, in a piece about them in National Geographic, which also decribed the Six Nations as having their own passports, and diplomatic relations with a number of other countries, and indigenous peoples in Central and South America.

When approaching the subject with an open mind, it calls into question the very notion of what makes a nation... a nation. Does any people have the right to tell another people that they are or are not a people unto themselves? Can the notion of self-determination among the "first nations" of North America continue to flourish (in addition to running their own casinos and the like) within the confines of the USA as it is currently established, whether or not we sell Manhattan back to them?

The answer may contribute to the redemption of this nation, faced with the consequences of empire over this past century. Perhaps it is time to learn from the mistakes made by ancient Rome, and return to the notion of America as a republic. We have made of ourselves a beacon of freedom and liberty which is the envy of all. Shall other nations assume the responsibility of learning from that example, without us acting as a "world police"?

Our efforts turning inward, we can then help to rekindle the fires of those councils that have long awaited a return to their meeting-place, attaining a new level of virtue as a free people -- by freeing those unjustly bound among ourselves.

With the establishment of this new center of learning in Washington, perhaps that transformation can allow for the self-determination of those who preceeded us to this land.

Maybe then it can truly be "the land of the free."