Excerpts from The Great Law of Peace — The Haudenosaunee Constitution

• All the business of the Five Nations Confederate Council shall be conducted by the two combined bodies of Confederate Lords.
• If the conditions which shall arise at any future time call for an addition to or change of this law, the case shall be carefully considered and if a new beam seems necessary or beneficial, the proposed change shall be voted upon and if adopted it shall be called, “Added to the Rafters”.
• If at any time it shall be manifest that a Confederate Lord has not in mind the welfare of the people or disobeys the rules of this Great Law, the men or women of the Confederacy, or both jointly, shall come to the Council and upbraid the erring Lord through his War Chief. If the Lord is contumacious the matter shall go to the council of War Chiefs.  The War Chiefs shall then divest the erring Lord of his title by order of the women in whom the titleship is vested.  When the Lord is deposed the women shall notify the Confederate Lords through their War Chief, and the Confederate Lords shall sanction the act.  The women will then select another of their sons as a candidate and the Lords shall elect him.  Then shall the chosen one be installed by the Installation Ceremony.
  When a Lord is to be deposed, his War Chief shall address him as follows:
  “So you, __________, disregard and set at naught the warnings of your women relatives.  So you fling the warnings over your shoulder to cast them behind you.
  “Behold the brightness of the Sun and in the brightness of the Sun’s light I depose you of your title and remove the sacred emblem of your Lordship title.  I remove from your brow the deer’s antlers, which was the emblem of your position and token of your nobility.  I now depose you and return the antlers to the women whose heritage they are.”
  The War Chief shall now address the women of the deposed
  Lord and say:
  “Mothers, as I have now deposed your Lord, I now return to you the emblem and the title of Lordship, therefore repossess them.”
  Again addressing himself to the deposed Lord he shall say:
  “As I have now deposed and discharged you so you are now no longer Lord.  You shall now go your way alone, the rest of the people of the Confederacy will not go with you, for we know not the kind of mind that possesses you.  As the Creator has nothing to do with wrong so he will not come to rescue you from the precipice of destruction in which you have cast yourself.  You shall never be restored to the position which you once occupied.”
• Should any man of the Nation assist with special ability or show great interest in the affairs of the Nation, if he proves himself wise, honest and worthy of confidence, the Confederate Lords may elect him to a seat with them and he may sit in the Confederate Council.  He shall be proclaimed a ‘Pine Tree sprung up for the Nation’ and shall be installed as such at the next assembly for the installation of Lords.  Should he ever do anything contrary to the rules of the Great Peace, he may not be deposed from office—no one shall cut him down— but thereafter everyone shall be deaf to his voice and his advice.  Should he resign his seat and title no one shall prevent him.  A Pine Tree chief has no authority to name a successor nor is his title hereditary.

• The lineal descent of the people of the Five Nations shall run in the female line.  Women shall be considered the progenitors of the Nation.  They shall own the land and the soil.  Men and women shall follow the status of the mother.
• The men of every clan of the Five Nations shall have aCouncil Fire ever burning in readiness for a council of the clan.  When it seems necessary for a council to be held to discuss the welfare of the clans, then the men may gather about the fire.  This council shall have the same rights as the council of the women.
• The women of every clan of the Five Nations shall have a Council Fire ever burning in readiness for a council of the clan.  When in their opinion it seems necessary for the interest of the people they shall hold a council and their decisions and recommendations shall be introduced before the Council of the Lords by the War Chief for its consideration.

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