The Iroquois Confederacy formed around a council of representatives from each tribe that joined the Confederacy. The impetus for unity was a combination of some members having relatively close language groups, and a mutual threat from the Huron, iirc. Tribal governance beneath this supra-tribal body varied, and was mostly traditional...so hardly a 'one man, one vote.' At the position of tribal representative to the Council, though - there were voting rights, iirc.
Of course, the British and French were quick to get involved the muck things up even more. Steel blades and gunpowder tend to do that.
Ah...Wikipedia corroborates some of what I remembered (whew)...
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chiming
Re: Also, if you look outside Europe
Date: February 3rd, 2005 08:20 pm (UTC)From:The Iroquois Confederacy formed around a council of representatives from each tribe that joined the Confederacy. The impetus for unity was a combination of some members having relatively close language groups, and a mutual threat from the Huron, iirc. Tribal governance beneath this supra-tribal body varied, and was mostly traditional...so hardly a 'one man, one vote.' At the position of tribal representative to the Council, though - there were voting rights, iirc.
Of course, the British and French were quick to get involved the muck things up even more. Steel blades and gunpowder tend to do that.
Ah...Wikipedia corroborates some of what I remembered (whew)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois
Indigenous American democracy, how about that. :-)