Chapter 2

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            "A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand." ~The Great White European Hero Christopher Columbus! Celebrated Annually by Amerikans, as well as officially sanctioned by the Amerikan Government!

9AD. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The German barbarians defeat the Roman Empire at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, just a short distance from Ottmarsbocholt, North-Rhine-Palatinate, where the Gripshovers originated from. The German Barbarians would be responsible for the downfall of the Roman Empire.

37AD. Titus Flavius Josephus born, 5 years after the supposed 33AD death of the son of God (/dʒoʊˈsiːfəs/; 37 –c. 100), born Joseph ben Matityahu (Hebrew: יוסף בן מתתיהו, Yosef ben Matityahu), was a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, historian and hagiographer, who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry. He initially fought against the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War as head of Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in 67 to Roman forces led by Vespasian after the six-week siege of Jotapata. Josephus claims the Jewish Messianic prophecies that initiated the First Roman-Jewish War made reference to Vespasian becoming Emperor of Rome. In response Vespasian decided to keep Josephus as a hostage and interpreter.

69AD. After Vespasian became Emperor in 69, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperor's family name of Flavius. Late in the first century, Josephus wrote his celebrated work, The Antiquities of the Jews, giving a history of his race from the earliest ages down to his own time.

90AD. The Birth of Claudius Ptolemy (/ˈtɒləmi/; Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, Klaudios Ptolemaios, pronounced [kláwdios ptolɛmɛ́ːos]; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus; c. AD 90 – c. AD 168) was a Greco-Egyptian writer of Alexandria, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Greek, and held Roman citizenship. There is no other reason to suppose that he ever lived anywhere else than Alexandria, where he died around AD 168. Ptolemy claimed that the Earth was the center of the Universe, that the Earth did not circle around the Sun, and the Roman Catholic Church accepted those lies as truth, and threatened ex-communication, or sometimes death, for saying that God didn't make Man the center of the Universe, for 1,500 years afterwards.

93-94AD. The extant manuscripts of the writings of the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus include references to Jesus and the origins of Christianity. Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, written around 93–94AD, 60 years after Jesus's supposed crucifixion, including two (2) references to the biblical Jesus Christ in Books 18 and 20 and a single (1) reference to John the Baptist in Book 18.

            The First Passage. Josephus also mentions James "the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ" and how James was put to death in AD 62 after accusation by Annas the High priest.  Modern scholarship has largely acknowledged the authenticity of the reference in Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 of the Antiquities to “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James,” and considers it as having the highest level of authenticity among the references of Josephus to Christianity. However, critics point out that Josephus wrote about a number of people who went by the name Jesus, Yeshua or Joshua, and also speculate that Josephus may have considered James a fraternal brother rather than a sibling. Almost all modern scholars consider the reference in Book 18, Chapter 5, 2 of the Antiquities to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist also to be authentic. “And now Caesar, upon hearing the death of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of the high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on the son of Ananus, who was also himself called Ananus... Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.” The works of Josephus refer to at least twenty different people with the name Jesus, and in chapter 9 of Book 20, there is also a reference to Jesus, son of Damneus, who was a High Priest of Israel, but is distinct from the reference to “Jesus called Christ” mentioned along with the identification of James. John Painter states that phrase “who was called Christ” is used by Josephus in this passage “by way of distinguishing him from others of the same name such as the high priest Jesus son of Damneus, or Jesus son of Gamaliel” both having been mentioned by Josephus in this context.

            The Second Passage. In the Antiquities of the Jews (Book 18, Chapter 5, 2) Josephus refers to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist by order of Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee and Perea. The context of this reference is the 36 AD defeat of Herod Antipas in his conflict with Aretas IV of Nabatea, which the Jews of the time attributed to misfortune brought about by Herod's unjust execution of John. “Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man... Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion... Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death.”

            The Third Passage. The Testimonium Flavianum. Scholarly opinion on the total or partial authenticity of the reference in Book 18, Chapter 3, 3 of the Antiquities, a passage that states that Jesus the Messiah was a wise teacher who was crucified by Roman Pontius Prefect Pilate, usually called the Testimonium Flavianum, varies. The general scholarly view is that while the Testimonium Flavianum is most likely not authentic in its entirety, it is broadly agreed upon that it originally consisted of an authentic nucleus, which was then subject to Christian interpolation or forgery by fourth-century apologist EUSEBIUS Eusebius or by others. Although the exact nature and extent of the Christian redaction remains unclear, there is broad consensus as to what the original text of the Testimonium by Josephus would have looked like.

            Here's the historical written “smoking gun proof” that Jesus, the one called Christ, really and truly lived:

          “Γίνεται δὲ κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον Ἰησοῦς σοφὸς ἀνήρ, εἴγε ἄνδρα αὐτὸν λέγειν χρή: ἦν γὰρ παραδόξων ἔργων ποιητής, διδάσκαλος ἀνθρώπων τῶν ἡδονῇ τἀληθῆ δεχομένων, καὶ πολλοὺς μὲν Ἰουδαίους, πολλοὺς δὲ καὶ τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ ἐπηγάγετο: ὁ χριστὸς οὗτος ἦν. καὶ αὐτὸν ἐνδείξει τῶν πρώτων ἀνδρῶν παρ᾽ ἡμῖν σταυρῷ ἐπιτετιμηκότος Πιλάτου οὐκ ἐπαύσαντο οἱ τὸ πρῶτον ἀγαπήσαντες: ἐφάνη γὰρ αὐτοῖς τρίτην ἔχων ἡμέραν πάλιν ζῶν τῶν θείων προφητῶν ταῦτά τε καὶ ἄλλα μυρία περὶ αὐτοῦ θαυμάσια εἰρηκότων. εἰς ἔτι τε νῦν τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἀπὸ τοῦδε ὠνομασμένον οὐκ ἐπέλιπε τὸ φῦλον.”

English translation:

            “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Roman Pontius Prefect Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.” Flavius Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, 3.

            The Testimonium Flavianum (meaning the testimony of Flavius Josephus) is the name given to the passage found in Book 18, Chapter 3, 3 of the Antiquities in which Josephus describes the condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus at the hands of the Roman authorities. The Testimonium is likely the most discussed passage in Josephus. The earliest secure reference to this passage is found in the writings of the fourth-century Christian apologist and historian Eusebius, who used Josephus' works extensively as a source for his own Historia Ecclesiastica. Writing no later than 324AD, Eusebius quotes the passage in essentially the same form as that preserved in extant manuscripts. It has therefore been suggested that part or all of the passage may have been Eusebius' own invention, in order to provide an outside Jewish authority for the life of Jesus, the one they called Christ. Some argue that the wording in the Testamonium differs from Josephus' usual writing style and that as a Jew, he would not have used a word like "Messiah". For attempts to explain the lack of earlier references, see Arguments for Authenticity. Of the three passages found in Josephus' Antiquities, this passage, the Testimonium Flavianum, if authentic, would offer the most direct support for the crucifixion of Jesus.

            The general scholarly view is that while the Testimonium Flavianum is most likely not authentic in its entirety, it originally consisted of an authentic nucleus, with a reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate, which was then forged. Like Earth being the center of the Universe, the Roman Catholic Church believed this lie too.

116AD. Tacitus writes about Jesus, the one called Christ, 80 years after his supposed death. The Roman historian and senator Tacitus referred to Christ, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in his final work, Annals (written ca. AD 116), Book 15, Chapter 44. The context of the passage is the six-day Great Fire of Rome that burned much of the city in 64AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero. The passage is one of the earliest non-Christian references to the origins of Christianity, the execution of Christ described in the Canonical gospels, and the presence and persecution of Christians in 1st-century Rome. Scholars generally consider Tacitus's reference to the execution of Jesus by Pontius Pilate to be both authentic, and of historical value as an independent Roman source. Scholars view it as establishing three separate facts about Rome around AD 60: (i) that there were a sizable number of Christians in Rome at the time, (ii) that it was possible to distinguish between Christians and Jews in Rome, and (iii) that at the time pagans made a connection between Christianity in Rome and its origin in Roman Judea. These facts however are so narrowly established (see Other Roman Sources below) that they are subject to much scrutiny, including on seemingly minor details like reports of Pilate's rank or the spelling of key words or Tacitus' actual sources.

221AD. Thallus was one of the first Gentile historians to mention Christ. His writings have disappeared but we know of them from the writing of others, such as Julius Africanus (about AD 221) who quotes from Thallas. One of his quotes includes reference to the darkness that occurred at the crucifixion and suggests that a total eclipse was the cause. Julius points out in his writing the impossibility of this since the festival of Passover, when Jesus was crucified, occurs at full moon (eclipses only occur at a new moon).

324AD. Eusebius the Apologist, added this part to Josephus's words, to give Jesus, the man called Christ, historical validity outside Jewish oral traditions. Eusebius wrote the The Testimonium Flavianum nearly 300 years after the supposed death of Jesus.

325 AD. The First Council of Nicaea. Roman Emperor Constantine, ironically, declares Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire, even though, Pontius Pilate is the one responsible for killing the popular myth amongst the pagans they perpetuate.

570 AD- 632AD, June 8. Muhammad lived, fucked hundreds, molested millions, and then died. Muhammad said some stuff to a guy who wrote it down too.

800s AD. Al-Farghani, an Arab geographer of 10^th century, showed the world that it was round, and not flat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_ibn_Muhammad_ibn_Kath%C4%ABr_al-Fargh%C4%81n%C4%AB

            “Columbus wrote to his royal sponsors that the inhabitants were 'such an affectionate and generous people and so tractable that there are no better people or land in the world. They love their neighbors as themselves and their speech is the sweetest and gentlest in the world, and they always speak with a smile'. ... “All over the age of 14 had to supply a certain amount of gold every three months. Those who did not were to be punished by having their hands cut off and left to bleed to death.” After trying to get slaves to Spain, where 200 died on the voyage over the Atlantic Ocean, Columbus then established the Encomienda System, which enabled appointed colonists to use the forced labor of Indians.” (Chris Harman).

900 AD. The Mississippian Period (900-1650 A.D.) in Kentucky begins. Mississippian Culture established. This was the last of the mound-building cultures of North America in Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States. American Indians domesticated a plethora of plants including the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), the gourd-like squash (Cucurbita pepo), the sunflower (Helianthus annuus), maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), amaranth (Amaranthus hypochondriacus), cushaw squash (Cucurbita argyrosperma), and tobacco (Nicotiana species). In addition to cultigens, American Indians practiced SILVACULTURE Silva culture of nut-bearing trees such as black walnut, pecan, and the chestnut. Aside from the economic significance of these CULTIGENS cultigens and masts, they are literally helping to feed people around the world today.

900-1519AD. Worship of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. In the Post-Classic Period (900–1519AD), the worship of the feathered serpent deity was based in the primary Mexican religious center of CHOLULA Cholula. It is in this period that the deity is known to have been named "Quetzalcoatl" by his HAHUA Nahua followers. In the Maya area he was approximately equivalent to Kukulcan and Gukumatz, names that also roughly translate as “feathered serpent” in different Mayan languages.

900AD-1100. The spread of the Iroquois League can be linked to the adoption of CORN corn [maize (Zea mays)] as a dietary staple among the Haudenosaunee, which also dates between 900 A.D. and 1100 A.D., Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields allege.

930AD. Iceland's Althing is founded. The Alþingi (anglicised as Althing or Althingi) is the national parliament (literally: "[the] all-thing", or general assembly) of Iceland. It is the oldest extant parliamentary institution in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at Þingvellir, the “assembly fields” or “Parliament Plains”, situated approximately 45km east of what later became the country's capital, Reykjavík. This event marked the beginning of the Icelandic Commonwealth. Even after Iceland's union with Norway in 1262, the Althing still held its sessions at Þingvellir until 1799, when it was discontinued for 45 years. It was restored in 1844 and moved to Reykjavík, where it has resided ever since. The present parliament building, the Alþingishús, was built in 1881, of hewn Icelandic stone. The constitution of Iceland provides for six electoral constituencies with the possibility of an increase to seven. The constituency boundaries are fixed by legislation. Each constituency elects nine members. In addition, each party is allocated seats based on its proportion of the overall national vote in order that the number of members in parliament for each political party should be more or less proportional to its overall electoral support. A party must have won at least five per cent of the national vote in order to be eligible for these proportionally distributed seats. Political participation in Iceland is very high: usually over 80% of the electorate casts a ballot (81.4% in 2013). The current president of the Althing is Einar Kristinn Guðfinnsson. The Icelandic Alþingi was established in 930 AD which makes it the oldest running parliament in the world. In the beginning it was an outdoor assembly held on the plains of Þingvellir (45 km from Reykjavík, Iceland's capital). The Althing was a general assembly of the Icelandic Commonwealth, where the country’s most powerful Leaders (goðar) met to decide on legislation and dispense justice. Then, all free men could attend the assemblies, which were usually the main social event of the year and drew large crowds of farmers and their families, parties involved in legal disputes, traders, craftsmen, storytellers and travellers.

970AD. Erik the Red’s Son, Erik the Red II, is born. His father, Erik the Red, founded the first European settlement of Greenland after being expelled from Iceland around A.D. 985 for killing a neighbor. (Erik the Red’s father, himself, had been banished from Norway for committing manslaughter.) Eriksson, who is believed to have been born in Iceland around A.D. 970, spent his formative years in desolate Greenland. Around A.D. 1000, Eriksson sailed east to his ancestral homeland of Norway. There, King Olaf I Tryggvason converted him to Christianity and charged him with proselytizing the religion to the pagan settlers of Greenland. Eriksson converted his mother, who built Greenland’s first Christian church, but not his outlaw father.

1000 AD. The Woodland Period (1,000BC-1,000AD) ends. The Woodland Period includes the Adena culture (mounds, a burial complex and ceremonial system. The Adena lived in a variety of locations, including: Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and parts of Pennsylvania and New York.) and Hopewell cultures. American societies were more advanced in agricultural technology, and methods, than the Europeans. The Tomato and Potato, as well as Chocolate and Vanilla, are indigenous to America.

1000 AD. The Monongahela Culture. Beginning about 1000 AD, a period in Ohio Country Native American history known as “Fort Ancient” (Adena and Shawnee), groups in the Middle Ohio Valley adopted an agrarian culture, with maize as their primary crop. These mound builders began settling in small, year-round settlements of no more than forty to fifty individuals.

1000AD. Iroquois people, who originally came with the other Native Americans, first settled in the northeastern part of North America around 1000AD.

1000AD. According to the sagas, at precisely A.D. 1000, Leif Eriksson, first son of the notorious Erik the Red, voyaged from Greenland for lands sighted to the west. He then landed on the shores of a beautiful place he named Vinland (Vine land). Later voyagers to Vinland met strange peoples, whom they called skraeling. Ever since these tales became widely known in the 19th century, scholars have debated their veracity while enthusiasts have proclaimed locations from Labrador to Florida as Leif’s Vinland. But in 1960, undeniable proof of Vikings in North America came to light at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. Several Norse Viking pieces and clear Icelandic- style house foundations gave proof positive that Vikings had indeed landed, and briefly settled, in North America 500 years before Columbus. More recent archaeological work has revealed over 300 years of sporadic contact between the Greenlandic Norse and various Indian, Inuit, and other Native American peoples, concentrated primarily in the Canadian Arctic. Vikings explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America. The Norse colony in Greenland lasted for almost 500 years. Continental North American settlements were small and did not develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, for example to get timber, are likely to have occurred for some time, there is no evidence of enduring Norse settlements on mainland North America. Icelandic legends called sagas recounted Eriksson’s exploits in the New World around A.D. 1000. These Norse stories were spread by word of mouth before becoming recorded in the 12th and 13th centuries... “salmon, and wild grapes so suitable for wine that Eriksson called the region Vinland (Wineland).”

1000-1300AD. The Iroquois moved northward up the Susquehanna river (from modern day MARYLAND Maryland) because of the global warm weather between 1000 and 1300 AD, just as the Inuit moved east and the Vikings moved west because of it. The Iroquois took their land from a smaller group of nomadic people we call the Woodland people. The Iroquois didn't call themselves "Iroquois", which is an Algonquin insult meaning “BLACK SNAKES”. They called themselves (their autonym) the HAUDENOSAUNEE “Haudenosaunee”, meaning “people who live in longhouses.” Or they called themselves by the kind of Iroquois they were - the CAYUGAS Cayugas, MOHAWKS Mohawks, ONEIDA Oneida, SENECA Seneca, and the ONONDAGA.

1050-1635 AD. To their northeast, in present-day Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio and West Virginia were the peoples of the Monongahela Culture, who inhabited the MONONGAHELA Monongahela River Valley from 1050 to 1635. Monongahela — often  referred to locally as the Mon /ˈmɒn/ — is a 130-mile-long (210 km) river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. The Monongahela joins the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River at Pittsburgh. They were maize agriculturalists and lived in well laid out palisaded villages with central oval plazas, some of which consisted of as many as 50-100 structures.

1100AD. Lacrosse was played in 1100 AD among indigenous peoples in America. By the seventeenth century, it was well-established. It was documented by Jesuit missionary priests in the territory of present-day Canada. The game has undergone many modifications since that time. Lacrosse played a significant role in the community and religious life of tribes across the continent for many years. Early lacrosse was characterized by deep spiritual involvement, befitting the spirit of combat in which it was undertaken. Those who took part did so in the role of warriors, with the goal of bringing glory and honor to themselves and their tribes. The game was said to be played “for the Creator” or was referred to as “The Creator's Game.”

1102AD. Dekanawida and Hahyonhwatha began their campaign to unite 5 of the major Iroquois-speaking tribes, which would take 40 years to persuade all five nations to ratify the constitution known as GAYANASHAGOWA Gayanashagowa, or THE GREAT BINDING LAW the Great Binding Law.

1142. August 22 or 31. A.D. THE IROQUOIS FEDERALISTS CONSTITUTION. Astronomers say an eclipse was visible in the area where the ceremony took place on August 31, 1142. On the same day, GAYANASHAGOWA Gayanashagowa (The Great Binding Law) is codified in a series of WAMPUM BELTS wampum belts (strings of white and black shells woven into belts) that are now held by the ONONDAGA Onondaga Nation. It defines the functions of the Great Iroquois Council and the way nations may resolve disputes and live in peace with each other. DEKANANWIDA Dekanawida designed his Great Binding Law with checks and balances that also ensured every man and woman had a say in tribal affairs. The powers of the War Chiefs balanced those of the Sachems (Civil Chiefs). The Clan Mothers chose Sachems and War Chiefs, and could replace them if they did not govern wisely. If the Clan Mothers failed to remove a bad Sachem or War Chief, either the women's or the men's council had the power to remove him and compel the Clan Mothers to select another man for the position. Every official, even the members of the Great Council, was subject to this law of removal. The Iroquois Constitution played a part in many aspects of people's lives. It established women's and men's councils. It forbade marriage between members of the same clan. It stated how a person could be adopted into a nation and how a person could give up his or her membership in a nation. It protected each nation's right to hold religious ceremonies. The Constitution also included sections on international affairs, outlining how and when war could be declared on foreign nations. It set out procedures by which peace could be made or war avoided. The Great Binding Law proved so efficient in maintaining peace that it served as a template for the men who drafted the American Constitution as well as diplomats meeting to devise a United Nations Charter after the Second World War. Mann and Fields cite Paula Underwood, a contemporary Iroquois oral historian, who estimated the League's founding date as A.D. 1090 by using family lineages as temporal benchmarks. Another traditional method to estimate the founding date is to count the number of people who have held the office of Tadadaho (speaker) of the Confederacy. A graphic record is available in the form of a cane that the eighteenth-century French observer Lafitau called the "Stick of Enlistment" and modern-day anthropologist William N. Fenton calls the "Condolence Cane." Mann and Fields used a figure of 145 Tadadahos (from Mohawk oral historian Jake Swamp), and then averaged the average tenure of other lifetime appointments, such as popes, European kings and queens, and U.S. Supreme court justices. Cautioning that different socio-historical institutions are being compared, they figure into their sample 333 monarchs from eight European countries, 95 Supreme Court Justices, and 129 popes. Averaging the tenures of all three groups, Mann and Fields found an estimated date that compares roughly to the 1142 date indicated by the eclipse record, and the 1090 date calculated from family lineages by Underwood. Mann and Fields also make their case with archaeological evidence. The rise in interpersonal violence that predated the Iroquois League can be tied to a CANNIBAL cannibal cult and the existence of villages with palisades, both of which can be dated to the mid-twelfth century (1150s). Assertion of the 1142 founding date is bound to raise a ruckus among Iroquois experts who have long asserted in print that the Confederacy did not begin until a few years before contact with Europeans in the early 1500s, or even afterwards.

            In their paper, Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields dispute statements by Temple Anthropology Professor Elisabeth Tooker, whom they quote as placing the original date "in the period from A.D. 1400 to 1600 or shortly before." Mann and Fields believe that scholars who argue the later dates dismiss the Iroquois oral history as well as solar-eclipse of data. Since such scholars use only documentary sources with dates on them, and since such documents have been left to use only by non-Indians, the Native American perspective is screened out of history, they argue. "It is capricious, and most probably racial, of scholars to continue dismissing the [Iroquois] Keepers [oral historians] as incompetent witnesses on their own behalf," Mann and Fields argue in their paper.scholars who insist on proof of the Iroquois League's origins written in a European language engage in a circular argument, Mann argues. When such writing is the only allowable proof, dating the Iroquois League's origins earlier than the first substantial European contact becomes impossible. One must be satisfied with the European accounts that maintain that the League was a functioning, powerful political entity when the first Europeans made contact with its members early in the 1500s. "What I imply is that there is no `proof' of the League's origins `written' in a contemporary (i.e. Mid-sixteenth century) European language," Mann argues. "In fact, what written records exist point in exactly the opposite direction." Mann also offers another example of what she believes to be the European-centered and male-centered nature of existing history. Most accounts of the Iroquois League's origins stress the roles played by DEGANAWIDAH Deganawidah, who is called THE PEACEMAKER The Peacemaker in oral discourse among traditional Iroquois, and AIONWANTHA Aionwantha (or HIAWATHA Hiawatha), who joined him in a quest to quell the blood feud and establish peace. Mann believes that documentary history largely ignores the role of a third person, a woman, JINGOSASEH Jingosaseh, who insisted on gender balance in the Iroquois constitution. Mann's argument is outlined in another paper, The Beloved Daughters of Jingosaseh. under Haudenosaunee law, clan mothers choose candidates (who are male) as chiefs. The women also maintain ownership of the land and homes, and exercise a veto power over any council action that may result in war. The influence of Iroquois women surprised and inspired nineteenth-century feminists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, according to research by modern feminist Sally Roesch Wagner. “I am Dekanawidah and with the Five Nations' Confederate Lords I plant the Tree of Great Peace. I plant it in your territory, Adodarhoh, and the Onondaga Nation, in the territory of you who are Firekeepers. I name the tree the Tree of the Great Long Leaves. Under the shade of this Tree of the Great Peace we spread the soft white feathery down of the globe thistle as seats for you, Adodarhoh, and your cousin Lords. We place you upon those seats, spread soft with the feathery down of the globe thistle, there beneath the shade of the spreading branches of the Tree of Peace. There shall you sit and watch the Council Fire of the Confederacy of the Five Nations, and all the affairs of the Five Nations shall be transacted at this place before you, Adodarhoh, and your cousin Lords, by the Confederate Lords of the Five Nations. Roots have spread out from the Tree of the Great Peace, one to the north, one to the east, one to the south and one to the west. The name of these roots is The Great White Roots and their nature is Peace and Strength. If any man or any nation outside the Five Nations shall obey the laws of the Great Peace and make known their disposition to the Lords of the Confederacy, they may trace the Roots to the Tree and if their minds are clean and they are obedient and promise to obey the wishes of the Confederate Council, they shall be welcomed to take shelter beneath the Tree of the Long Leaves. We place at the top of the Tree of the Long Leaves an Eagle who is able to see afar. If he sees in the distance any evil approaching or any danger threatening he will at once warn the people of the Confederacy.

            “To you Adodarhoh, the Onondaga cousin Lords, I and the other Confederate Lords have entrusted the caretaking and the watching of the Five Nations Council Fire. When there is any business to be transacted and the Confederate Council is not in session, a messenger shall be dispatched either to Adodarhoh, Hononwirehtonh or Skanawatih, Fire Keepers, or to their War Chiefs with a full statement of the case desired to be considered. Then shall Adodarhoh call his cousin (associate) Lords together and consider whether or not the case is of sufficient importance to demand the attention of the Confederate Council. If so, Adodarhoh shall dispatch messengers to summon all the Confederate Lords to assemble beneath the Tree of the Long Leaves.” http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/before-1600/the-constitution-of-the-iroquois-nations-around-1500.php 1142. August 31, or 22. However, recent archaeological studies have suggested the accuracy of the account found in Oral Tradition, which argues that the federation was formed around August 31, 1142 based on a coinciding solar eclipse (see Fields and Mann, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol. 21, #2). The two spiritual leaders, AYONWENTAH Ayonwentah (generally called HIAWATHA Hiawatha due to the Longfellow poem) and "Deganawidah, The Great Peacemaker," brought a message of peace to squabbling tribes. The tribes who joined the League were the 1) Seneca, 2) Onondaga, 3) Oneida, 4) Cayuga, and 5) Mohawks. Once they ceased most infighting, they rapidly became one of the strongest forces in seventeenth and eighteenth century northeastern North America. According to legend, an evil Onondaga chieftain named Tadadaho was the last to be converted to the ways of peace by The Great Peacemaker and Ayonwentah, and became the spiritual leader of the Haudenosaunee. This event is said to have occurred at Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, New York. The title Tadadaho is still used for the league's spiritual leader, the fiftieth chief, who sits with the Onondaga in council, but is the only one of the fifty chosen by the entire Haudenosaunee people. The League engaged in a series of wars against the French and their Iroquoian-speaking Wyandot ("Huron") allies. They also put great pressure on the Algonquian peoples of the Atlantic coast and what is now boreal Canadian Shield region of Canada and not infrequently fought the English colonies as well. During the seventeenth century, they are also credited with having conquered and/or absorbed the Neutral Indians and Erie Tribe to the west as a way of controlling the fur trade, even though other reasons are often given for these wars.Before 1600, the last total solar eclipse observable in upstate New York occurred on August 31, 1142. If Mann and Fields are correct, this was the date on which Tododaho accepted the alliance. The Haudenosaunee thus would have the second oldest continuously existing representative parliaments on earth. Only Iceland's Althing, founded in 930AD, is older. (Charles C. Mann). “I looked up the August 1142 total solar eclipse at the NASA Eclipse Web Site, which lists the date as August 22 (not August 31), 1142. Perhaps the discrepancy depends on whether one is using the Gregorian or Julian calendar. Either way, the August 1142 eclipse almost certainly has to be one that is being referenced.

            “The ratification council convened at a site that is now a football field in Victor, New York. The site is called GONANDAGA Gonandaga by the Seneca." ~Bruce E. Johansen, Dating the Iroquois Confederacy. Other purposed dates include June 28, 1451 and June 18, 1536. But the total solar eclipse of 1451 June 28 did not swing as close to Victor as the one on 1142 August 22 did. The path of 1536 June 18 eclipse didn't pass all that close to Victor either, and moreover, this was an annular eclipse, rather than a total eclipse of the sun. Could it have been an annular solar eclipse that convinced the Seneca to join up the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy at Gonandaga (Victor, NY)? If so, the formation of Haudenosaunee (Five Nations) might go all the way back to the annular eclipse of August 18, 909. The middle of the eclipse path (in red) on the below chart almost exactly crosses Victor, NY! Click here for more details. The total eclipse of December 10, 1349... this total solar eclipse passed right over Victor. Upon a closer reading of A Sign In The Sky, I came to realize that this particular eclipse came at the wrong season of the year and the wrong time of day.” In the words of the authors Barbara A. Mann and Jerry L. Fields,"We know this much: During a ratification council held at GANONDAGAN Ganondagan (near modern-day Victor, New York) the sky darkened in a total, or near total, eclipse. The time of day was afternoon, as Councils are held between noon and sunset. The time of year was either Second Hoeing (early July) or Green Corn (late August to early September). Thus, we must look for an eclipse path that would totally cover Ganondagan between July and September, in mid-afternoon."The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, one of the world's oldest democracies, according to research by Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields of Toledo University, Ohio. Using a combination of documentary sources, solar eclipse data, and Iroquois oral history, Mann and Fields assert that the Iroquois Confederacy's body of law was adopted by the Senecas (the last of the five nations to ratify it) August 31, 1142. The ratification council convened at a site that is now a football field in Victor, New York. The site is called Gonandaga by the Seneca.

            Barbara Mann, a doctoral student in American Studies at Toledo University of Ohio; Fields, an astronomer, is an expert in the history of solar eclipses. The Senecas' oral history mentions that the Senecas adopted the Iroquois Great Law of Peace shortly after a total eclipse of the sun. Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields are the first scholars to combine documentary history with oral accounts and precise solar data in an attempt to date the origin of the Iroquois League. Depending on how democracy is defined, their date of 1142 A.D. would rank the Iroquois Confederacy with the government of Iceland and the Swiss cantons as the oldest continuously functioning democracy on earth. All three precedents have been cited as forerunners of the United States system of representative democracy. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy functions today in Upstate New York; it even issues passports. The date that Mann and Fields assert for the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy is more than 300 years earlier than the current consensus of scholarship; many experts date the formation of the Confederacy to the year 1451, at the time of another solar eclipse. Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields contend that the 1451 eclipse was total, but that its shadow fell over Pennsylvania, well to the southwest of the ratifying council's location. According to Barbara Mann, the Seneca were the last of the five Iroquois nations to accept the Great Law of Peace. THE IROQUOIS FEDERALISTS CONSTITUTION. An alternate possible origin of the name Iroquois is reputed to come from a French version of a Huron (Wyandot) name—considered an insult—meaning "Black Snakes." The Iroquois Confederacy was established prior to major European contact, complete with a constitution known as the Gayanashagowa (or "Great Law of Peace") with the help of a memory device in the form of special beads called wampum that have inherent spiritual value (wampum has been inaccurately compared to money in other cultures). Anthropologists have traditionally speculated that this constitution was created between the middle 1400s and early 1600s.

1150AD. Cahokia, the City of the Sun, was the largest city in North America. Population: 20,000. Cahokia was the Pinnacle of Mississippian culture. Located at the Confluence of 3 Rivers. Cahokia (Collinsville, Illinois) was larger than London suburbs. 80 Indian Mounds still exist today. One large mound was the leader of Cahokia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt-u9FBBnhc.

1,200AD. “Indians were flourishing in central Kentucky, their towns numbering more than fifty. Village life centered around a plaza and meetinghouse in the village's midst. Around the pavilion they erected elm-bark wigwams that resembled shortened, less expansive versions of Iroquois longhouses. Town populations rarely exceeded 300, and often, towns were ringed by palisades. As towns grew and as game, furbearers, shellfish, wood, and fertile land dwindled, the “Big Men” gave the call to move, usually about once every generation.” (Belue, pg. 3). 1200 AD. These small villages began to coalesce into larger settlements of up to 300 people. Settlements were rarely permanent, as the people commonly moved to a new location after one or two generations, when the natural resources surrounding the previous village were exhausted.

1200s AD. In the 1200s AD, the Cayugas (a kind of Iroquois) drove the Allegans away from the north end of Owasco Lake (now the town of Auburn), a trade town where two important trails crossed.

1240AD. The Delaware, Shawnee, Nanticoke All Move South. “The Walam Olum, the migration legend of the Delaware, gives a clue about the time of the Shawnee migration to the south: “When Little Fog was Chief, many of them [Delaware] went away with the Nanticoke and Shawnee to the land in the south.” The date of this occurance is estimated at about 1240 AD.

1300AD (after). Cofitachequi was typical of several Mississippian paramount chiefdoms in the American south at the time of de Soto: a large town at the center of the chiefdom, often containing large ceremonial mounds and temples, controlled a large number of smaller settlements with the influence of the center extending out many miles. The chiefdoms were often bordered by a large uninhabited area as a buffer zone between warring chiefdoms. The basis of the economy was maize agriculture. Cofitachequi was perhaps the easternmost of the Mississippian chiefdoms and one of the latest, founded after 1300 A.D The people of Cofitachequi are believed by most scholars to have spoken a Muskogean language; if correct, the chiefdom of Cofitachequi was the easternmost extent of this language family. However, the area of influence of Cofitachequi probably also included Siouan (Catawba) and Iroquoian (Cherokee) speakers. Although Cofitachequi's fame was widespread, its area of political control and influence is uncertain. Most likely, Cofitachequi politically controlled a cluster of towns around present-day Camden, an 80 to 100 mile (130–160km) stretch of the Wateree River and vicinity in South Carolina, and a similar portion of the Pee Dee River. More distant towns in the piedmont of North Carolina and the coastal plains of South Carolina may have paid tribute to Cofitachequi,but retained a measure of freedom. The scholar Charles Hudson listed more than 30 towns that might have been under the control of Cofitachequi, indicating a population of the chiefdom of several tens of thousands of people. The chiefdom of Cofitachequi may have been in decline when visited by de Soto in 1540 and Pardo in 1566, much of the decline occasioned by the brutal passage of de Soto and his army. De Soto found little maize in the town to feed his soldiers and saw evidence that an epidemic, possibly European in origin, had wiped out the population of several settlements. Nevertheless, the fame and some of the influence of Cofitachequi endured another 100 years until the time of Woodward's visit. Why Cofitachequi disappeared, replaced by smaller and simpler communities of Indians, is unknown although the ravages of European diseases was probably a factor.

1350AD. The Iroquois probably brought farming with them when they arrived in modern New York and Pennsylvania. Iroquois farmers grew corn and beans and squash, and also sunflowers and tobacco. Around 1350 AD, the warm weather ended, and the environment began a "Little Ice Age", with colder weather. The Iroquois started to fight a lot of wars around this time, and they started to build their villages on high ground and surround them with strong log walls. One of their main enemies was the Algonquin, who were trying to move further south where the weather would be warmer.

1390AD. At some point around the 1400s AD, the Iroquois formed a confederacy (con-FED-ur-ah-see), which is a sort of club or organization. This was an agreement between the different groups of Iroquois - the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Cayuga, the Seneca, and the Onandagua - to get along and fight as allies against their enemies, instead of fighting each other. This agreement was recorded using wampum.

            “Captains, Mexicas, come here quickly! Come here with all arms, spears, and shields! Our Captains murdered! Our Warriors slain! Oh Mexica captains, our warriors have been annihilated!”