--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Sjodahl, J. M. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 25 number: 3 published: 1922-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'J. M. Sjodahl, "The First League of Nations in America," *Improvement Era* 25, no. 3 (January 1922): 230–233.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2503unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2503unse start_page: 230 end_page: 233 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1922-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2503unse publication_year: 1922 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1922, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The First League of Nations in America The First League of Nations in America By J. M. Sjodahl When the world war was brought to an end, the uppermost question in the minds of thoughtful people everywhere was, How can such slaughter and destruction, with their concomitant evils of pestilence, famine, and economic ruin, be prevented in the future? To the eminent statesmen who met at Versailles to con- sider terms of peace the thought occurred that a federation of nations, or, as they called it, a league, formed somewhat on the pattern of our great Union of states, might be the salvation of the world from the hideous evils of militarism just mentioned. Consequently the league was formed. For reasons entirely outside the scope of this paper and therefore not discussed here, the child of sorrow born at Ver- sailles during one of the darkest hours of history was not re- ceived with universal rejoicing, and it is a question whether it will be nursed to maturity. But within the last few days there have been rumors in Washington of a desire to form a world- organization on different lines — an association for the rational purpose of settling international difficulties by discussion in- stead of by violence. May this divinely-inspired thought ma- terialize! A league could do no more than such an associa- tion. "What's in a name," anyhow? Have we not been led to believe that "a rose under any other name would smell just as sweet?" While the question of some world-organization in the in- terest of peace is uppermost in our minds, I would like to remind the readers of the Era of the curious fact that some of the North American Indians, our Lamanite brethren, way back in the 15th or 16th century, wrestled, on a small scale, with a problem similar to that which is before all the world now, and that they then formed a League of Nations as its best solution. At the time when the French explored the St. Lawrence river, the five Indian nations, the Mohawks, the Onondagas, the Oneidas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas — all of the Iroquois stock — occupied what is now the state of New York, except the lower Hudson valley. They were surrounded by power- ful, hostile tribes, such as the Hurons, the Algonquins, and their FIRST LEAGUE OF NATIONS IN AMERICA 231 congeners, the Neutral nation, the Lenapes, the Mohegans, and other less known native tribes. All these, though closely related, were often on the warpath, just as the Lamanites of old. We all know what Indian warfare, accompanied by human sacri- fices and cannibalism, used to be. In the fifteenth century* there arose in one of the five nations a statesman and reformer, whose name was Deganaivida. Indian tradition has surrounded him by a halo of miraculous characteristics. His mother was poor and despised. His grandmother had dreams and visions of his coming. His con- ception was miraculous, and he had power both on earth and in heaven. The historical kernel of the poetic and idealistic folk lore is that, when grown up, he felt that he had a divine call to stem the tide of war and bloodshed that threatened to over- whelm his people. At this .time the Neutral nation had a chieftainess named Djigonsasen. With fine, womanly intuition, she was the first to understand and accept the plan proposed by Deganawida for the ending of bloodshed. The next convert was Hiawatha. According to tradition, this famous Indian was a cannibal when Deganawida first met him, but he was converted and became the chief actor in the remarkable reform work. He gave up everything and devoted all his time and energy to the conversion of the Indians to a policy of peace. The result was that the Iroquois League of Nations was formed by an association of the five nations previously mentioned, and pres- ently the Neutral nation and the Tuscaroras joined the fed- eration. This remarkable League was founded on the basis of these three double principles: (1) Sanity of mind and health of body; and peace between individuals and organized bodies or groups of persons. (2) Righteousness in conduct and its advocacy in thought and in speech; and equity or justice, the adjustment of rights and obligations. (3) Physical strength and power, as military force or civil authority; and the "orenda" or magic power of the people or of their institutions and rituals, having mythic and religious implications.! If we study this program in the light of the conditions that prevailed among the Indians three or four centuries ago, •According to Dr. Brinton the league was formed in the 15th century; according to Dr. J. N. B. Hewitt, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, in the 16th. tJ. N. B. Hewitt, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Report for 1918, p. 541. 232 IMPROVEMENT ERA we will agree with Dr. Brinton: "Certainly this scheme was one of the most far-sighted, and in its aim beneficent, which any statesman has ever designed for man.* For, be it under- stood, the federation was not to be a limited one. The ambi- tious design of the founders was to unite all mankind in one brotherhood and to abolish war altogether.** The formation of this league was, in my opinion, the visible result of the predominating influence of the women in the public as well as private affairs of the Iroquois Indians. Among them descent was traced in the female line. A woman was the moderator of each Otmehira — as the family of blood-rela- tives was called — and the mothers were the trustees of certain chieftainships. At their councils they had the right to nom- inate candidates for chief and vice chiefs, and to propose ques- tions for consideration by the tribal council. It was also the duty of the matron of the owachira, if a chief erred, to go to him and admonish him to repent. If he failed to do so, she was to go to him a second time in company with her brother or eldest son and repeat her admonition. If he still persisted in wrong-doing, it was her duty to summon him, in the presence of certain witnesses, to appear before the council. In the council meeting he was asked by the chief warrior if he would reform. If he refused he was deposed then and there, and the matron received the insignia of his office and held them until another chief had been chosen. It is not strange that a people who had given their women so great influence should see in glorious visions, as John on Patmos, the New Jerus- alem on the holy mountain of the Lord, and that they should try to make those visions a reality. It is a peculiar fact that good women, if permitted to be themselves, are more concerned about what is right and true than what is expedient, and there- fore have clearer visions of both the present and future; while many men, even good men, in positions of trust, are absolutely color blind as between truth and expediency; between what is right and what is merely convenient. It is customary to talk about the degraded, oppressed In- dian women. In this League of five tribes, two represented the women and three the men, respectively representing the mother and father side, the whole representing the union of fatherhood and motherhood for the promotion of the wel- fare of all. Can a more elevating conception of human brother- hood be formed in the mind of mortal man? Some good people believe that militarism is necessary to *The American Race, p. 83. **Horatio Hale, The Iroquois* Book of Rites, pp. 21, 22. FIRST LEAGUE OF NATIONS IN AMERICA 233 keep nations in a "fit" condition, both physically and morally. History teaches a different lesson. It tells us that nation after nation has committed "race suicide" by perpetual warfare ; they have bled themselves to death. It also tells us of nations that have grown strong, body and soul, in peaceful aims and pur- suits. As for the Iroquois, who, we may say, placed the state under the influence of their motherhood, Dr. Brinton says: "Physically the stock is most superior, unsurpassed by any other on the continent, and I may even say by any other people in the world; for it stands on record that the five companies (500 men) recruited from the Iroquois of New York and Canada during aur Civil War stood first on the list among all the recruits of our army for height, vigor, and improved symmetry."* Where did these Indians receive their ideal of a millennial condition on earth? Whence their inspiration? My opinion is that the wonderful light their ancestors had enjoyed, as related in the Book of Mormon, had not been totally extinguished, but that a spark from the divine fire was still glowing here and there, dimly, uncertainly, but yet per- ceptible to men and women who had the gift to see and to reflect. In other words, I believe they had traditions, in more or less imperfect form, of the history of their ancestors in America, and of the gospel that promises a reign of peace on earth, as recorded in the Book of Mormon. We know that they had traditions of the creation and of the wanderings of their an- cestors and their crossing of mighty waters. We know that the Lenapes believed that their ancestors at one time lived in a country called Lum.on.-aki (a word undoubtedly derived from Laman), which Rafinesquef tells us means the "white country" — the country of Laman, which also means "white." The tra- dition of this "white" country, the Algonquins had preserved in their story of the Abn-dki, which Dr. Brinton says means literally "our white ancestors" — the word (l)abn being only a variant of the Lenape lumon or laman. Even among the Esquimos this tradition of a "white" ancestral home has been found, according to Prof. Rafn,$ at one time secretary of the Antiquarian Society, Copenhagen. They called it Hwitra- mannaland, an old Scandinavian word meaning "white man's country." Remember that the word Laman, or Laban, is pure Hebrew and means "white," and it is clear that these traditions are traceable directly to the Book of Mormon. *The American Race, p. 82. iThe American Nation, Vol. I, p. 129. tQuoted by Rivero and Tschudi, Peruvian Antiquities, p. 5.