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THE CAUCUS - NATIVE AMERICAN GIFT TO THE NATION January 25, 2008 Susan Bates

It's election time again. The Iowa caucus was the starting gun for 10 months of political hype and ads, ad nauseum. I was listening to CNN's coverage of the Iowa event when I heard a reporter mention that the word "caucus" might have been an Indian word. The anchorwoman's startled laugh and dubious reply made it clear that she had grave doubts about that. According to my Merriam Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary*, the word caucus is "probably Algonquian" and means "a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on policy. Contrary to popular white opinion, our form of government is much, much older than anything Europeans had and was not a gift from the Greeks. While Europe was still in the throes of the "Middle Ages," Hiawatha had already founded the League of Iroquois Nations which was the biggest political unit north of the Aztec nation. Benjamin Franklin thought this form of government much superior to anything the white's had and fought to form the same type of system for the United States. Today we enjoy many of the benefits which "savage peoples" taught to our Founding Fathers. Some of these are; no royalty, no hereditary rule; the separation of civilian and military rule; the ability to naturalize new citizens; the right to admit new nations into our body; and the use of the caucus to decide what the majority of our people favor before we take the floor to present our case. Perhaps some day soon, all people will understand just how advanced our society was before we were invaded by those who's main "advantages" were superiority in numbers and horrible diseases. Until then, I urge everyone to cast their vote this election day. Who knows, the way things are going, this might be the last one. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> *Websters New Collegiate Dictionary, 1975 edition. Weatherford, J., Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1988. The History and Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy (F. Jennings, ed.). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1985.

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