Compare the Iroquois Constitution and the U.S. Constitution with regard to the separation of church and state (separating religious/spiritual beliefs from governing policy).

Iroquois ConstitutionBegin your response here:The U.S. Constitution and the Iroquois Constitution have similarities and differences. The main difference is that the Iroquois did not separate their religion from their law and the U.S. did. Another difference is that the Iroquois talk about Lords controlling the government and giving the Lords rights. The U.S. talks about the people and giving all the people rights. A similarity is that the both talk about having checks and balances in the government.

In the Iroquois constitution, they talk about the tree that binds them together and they have laws that involve their religion. The U.S. constitution leaves this out because they wanted people in the U.S. to have the freedom of religion unlike the Iroquois and Britain. This caught on because today, many countries now share this separation of government and religion.

The Iroquois have social classes like Lords and Chiefs that are different from the U.S. and also are given different rights than the normal Iroquois man. We have similar classes such as senators and congressmen, but outside of their job, they have the same rights as a normal U.S. citizen. The Iroquois give favor to their Lords and Chiefs. However, both the constitutions do share the idea of electing the officials through voting.

The major similarity of the two constitutions is the fact that they talk about having checks and balances in the government. That is one of the major things needed for a successful government. The Iroquois have three parties that decide what the council is going to do, the U.S. has three parties too, and two of the Iroquois parties discuss what action to take while the third makes sure that there are no errors in what the first two parties are saying, this is an example of one of the checks and balances. The U.S. government does similar things with congress and the senate.

I think the U.S. took ideas from the Iroquois constitution and refined them but also left some things out, like the religion intertwined with the government. They also changed it to fit the need of the growing country. This helped the U.S. start a successful government that is one of the best today.

source: Iropuois Constitution, U.S. Constitution, Online U.S. History Book