Acknowledgments

Like the Peacemaker's collaborative effort with Hiawatha, this work has been a co-operative effort, not only between two authors, but among many other people who share with us an interest in exploring history, specifically the impact of Native Americans on the stream of ideas that laid the foundation for democratic thought.

Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people have carried this idea in their oral history for many centuries, and our thanks goes to those who have helped us understand the symbolism of the Great Law, and ways to seek its imagery in colonial and revolutionary-era archives. The Fadden family: Ray, John Kahionhes and Steve -- have been native culture-bearers for generations. Their advice always has been good. Likewise, John Mohawk shared his research of European philosophy and the early colonial periods with us.

Many other people have shared their research, writing and insights with us, including English Professor Bruce Burton of Castleton College, Vermont, Anthropology Professor Jack Weatherford of St. Paul's Macalester College, Dr. Sally Wagner, research affiliate of the University of California at Davis, Vine Deloria, Jr., of the University of Arizona Indian Studies, Duane Champagne, editor of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal at UCLA, and Jose Barreiro, editor of Northeast Indian Quarterly. Jose, Susan Dixon, Ron LaFrance, and other faculty and staff of the Cornell University American Indian Program played key roles in the landmark conference during the fall of 1987 which brought scholars together with Haudenosaunee people on their campus. Likewise, Toni Truesdale of Philadelphia organized two major conferences in her city, the first of which, in 1988, provided the two authors of this volume an initial opportunity to meet, become friends, and to discuss scholarly strategy.

We also need to thank innumerable people who aided us in our research at libraries and archives across the country, including the staffs of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Rhode Island Historical Society, the New York Public Library, Brown University's libraries, the libraries of Harvard University, as well as the New York State Museum, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the American Philosophical Society, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Public Archives of Canada, the National Archives and the Library of Congress.

Since this study surveyed the papers of the founding fathers and the many state and national documentary series to obtain references to Native American confederacies and political theory, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge their yeoman work in making the basic data more accessible. Without their work, such rudimentary Post Modernist studies such as this that sift through the pitchblend of colonial data to find revealing information about American Indians would not have been possible. We can only hope that in the future the task for future studies will be easier when the data can be examined more readily through the use of emerging computer technologies.

Professor Grinde would also like to thank the history faculties at Cal Poly and UC, Riverside for their support and encouragement. Special thanks is also given to the many American Indian people that supported and encouraged us in this intellectual odyssey. At times, it seemed that we were all alone, but they always were with us in our efforts to factor American Indian ideas into the fundamental governmental icons of American history. The bearers of the oral history of American Indians are especially important since much of what they have maintained can now be documented in the written sources. In a sense, they are the ultimate historians ... keeping alive the basic knowledge of the cultural encounter in spite of the shifting ideologies of race and nationality in the "civilized" world.

Thanks also are due the interlibrary loan service of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, as well as the same campus' computer-education office, whose staff invested many hours enabling cross-campus computer communication once we joined efforts. We'd also like to acknowledge U.N.O.'s dean of arts and sciences, Jack Newton, whose office approved a semester professional leave for Dr. Johansen to produce initial drafts of this book in the fall of 1989, as well as Communication Department chairs Hugh Cowdin and Bob Carlson, who endured numerous scheduling headaches each semester for several years to allow released time for Dr. Johansen's writing efforts in Omaha.

We bemoan the loss of a great American Indian leader, Rupert Costo, who died before this manuscript was completed. Rupert Costo's courageous leadership in reshaping the data base and interpretation of American Indians in history, for over forty years, has served as an example for all human beings dedicated to freedom and equality and its furtherance in the educational environment. He took an active and supportive interest in the issues raised in this book, all his life. He took heart in his last days that new data and interpretations were emerging. We only wish he would have lived to have seen the final product. We also wish that Lovell Thompson, late publisher of Gambit, Inc., was alive to see the completion of this work. Often a man in advance of his time, Lovell took on Professor Johansen's Forgotten Founders in 1981, after dozens of trade presses found it too "academic," while academic houses often found their traditionally trained reviewers condemning the very idea that Native Americans could have helped shape democracy.

We would also like to thank all those academics who insisted with straight faces that the Iroquois and other native confederacies could not possibly have helped shape democracy in the United States and Europe. A lively debate is always good to spur the exploration of history. They served as a foil to hone and temper the arguments of the authors. Their rigorous criticism in newspapers, academic journals and the broadcast media have not only served the interest of historical knowledge but also aided in sensitizing the public to the nature of this debate.

Even though this book is dedicated to our spouses, it seems that their names should be included as authors since they patiently encouraged us in our darkest and most desperate hours to go on. Research and writing are lonely pursuits as our spouses can testify so we also thank them for the sacrifices of time that inevitably occurs in such a process. Finally, we thank children, such as Donald Grinde's son, Kee Nez Grinde, who provided us with the special joys of spiritual regeneration in parenting. A more complete knowledge of the past helps them to understand themselves. Lest we forget, without children, human existence and thus history, would cease to exist. Dr. Johansen's many friends at El Centro de la Raza in Seattle also helped inspire his faith in a better future for all humankind.

Although this book had many readers and collaborators, in the final analysis, the authors are responsible for the interpretations advanced herein. It is our sincere hope that we have raised more questions than we have answered since this is a new avenue of scholarly inquiry. We are only beginning to understand the dynamics of the cultural encounter between Europeans and Native Americans. With new tools and insights, let us begin anew the challenge of understanding the history of all the peoples of America.

Donald A. Grinde, Jr. Rupert Costo Professor    of American Indian History University of California, Riverside Bruce E. Johansen Professor of Communication University of Nebraska at Omaha April 17, 1990