Choice Blog: Relations Between the American and Iroquois Constitutions?

The U.S. Constitution definitely seems to be based off of many part of the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations. Some of the connections that are most obvious are the ideas of having three branches of government and also a set of written freedoms that all people are entitled to.
Only partway into the Iroquois Constitution, it specifically says that the "Council of the Mohawk shall be divided into three parties..." which appears to me to be an awful lot like our three branches of government. Furthermore, the first two of the Iroquois "parties" are supposed to create much of the sense of order, and the third "party" is there to listen and decide what is right based upon law and tradition. Sound familiar? This definitely seems to be very much like our Judicial Branch, whose goal is to decide what is right and just. Obviously this particular section must have had an influence on the Constitution, otherwise they could not be so eerily similar.
Anything aspect that both Constitutions make a point to discuss is the freedoms of the people living under these laws. The Iroquois Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and expression, just as the U.S. Constitution has the Bill of Rights which protects its people. Interestingly though, the Iroquois Constitution also includes polite things like "the Onondaga Lords shall open it by expressing their gratitude..." which seems to go further than the U.S. Constitution.
One final similarity I noticed was that both Constitutions only use masculine terms. This may not be because of one another, it was just something I found interesting. The Iroquois Nation's Constitution only used words like "he" and "man" when describing its people, even though many Indian nations were  known to have women with positions of power. This style was followed in many American documents, and it was just an aspect I found interesting.
After reading the Constitution of the Iroquois Nation, I would definitely conclude that the American Constitution must have been influenced at least slightly by the Iroquois Constitution and that the Native Americans and settlers piggy-backed ideas off of each other even in ways as prominent as their governing laws.