Progressive Democrats of America's 8-part class on the US Constitution, at Beaver County Community College, May-June 2011, Sci-Tech 4005, 7pm Tuesday

1. The U.S Constitution, Then and Now The History, Debates and Democratic Evolution that Shaped Our Country’s Founding Documents—and Why We Still Need to Improve and Defend Them

3. Ours Was Not the First Form of Government in the New World

4. Some Native Towns and Cities Were Well Developed Before We Came Cahokia, now East St Louis, Illinois, around 1200 AD, had nearly 20,000 Residents, and was larger than Paris, France at the same time

5. Western PA Was Largely Part of the Iroquois Confederation of Tribes Shannopin's Town, a Seneca tribe village on the east bank of the Allegheny, at the ‘Forks of the Ohio, was the village of Queen Aliquippa, but was deserted after 1749. The painting here shows Natives observing what was Fort Duquesne and then Fort Pitt. The purple area is the Iroquois tribes; the gray area is the Shawnee and Delaware tribes

6. ‘ Logstown,’ or Shenango, Was the Largest Iroquois Settlement in Our Area ‘ People of the Long Houses’ was the Iroquois name for themselves. About 40 of these made up Logstown, along with several hundred smaller structures.

7. ‘ The Law of Great Peace’ What the Iroquois Called Their Constitution John Rutledge of South Carolina, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, is said to have read lengthy tracts of Iroquoian law to the other framers, beginning with the words "We, the people, to form a union, to establish peace, equity, and order..." In October 1988, the US Congress passed Concurrent Resolution 331 to recognize the influence of the Iroquois Constitution upon the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. ‘ Tree of Life,’ the Iroquois symbol for their ‘Great Law’ and its 117 Articles

9. Who/Whom? What Constitutions and Treaties Are: A Set of Rules within and between Political Domains Declaring Who Can Do What To Whom and Why ? They come in many varieties…