Indigenous Democracies Talking Points

Things I noticed in this section:

• Power of culture to control society
• The Iroquois culture was so powerful, there was no chaos.  We have so many different cultures, with so many intolerances that it seems impossible to return to a culture that powerful.  Yet, at the same time, we have capitalism sitting over us, over everything, directing our actions.  Capitalism sets us against each other, which sets up the problems between societies - capitalism and religion, I guess.   
• Setting of violence within a society
• "The cycles of violence were deeply embedded in the laws and customs of the Indian people, and they were about revenge, for real and imagined injuries," (55) This reminds me of Jensen and his cycles of violence.  Violence against women, violence against each other, both are allowed in today's society.  " How people are treating one another in the world has no relationship at all to thinking about how we sustain human life on the planet," (57).  This reflects on the lose of community in society.  
• "What we do to each other, we do to the Earth"
• Jensen again!
• Democracy was first an Indigenous practice.
• The Indigenous people were the ones who taught "Americans" how to have democracy.  Slowly this has been lost over time.  In Indigenous society, everyone votes and takes part in the decision making process.  They use consensus, and the notions of justice, peace, and unity.  They picked their leaders with a long, involved process, and if even one person had a problem with a prospective leader, that person wasn't chosen.  That isn't how it works in Western society.