I sat at a lunch table with a professor of premonotheistic spirituality, plus several women from some of the tribes in this state that has more Native Americans than any other. All agreed that the paradigm of human organization had been the circle, not the pyramid or hierarchyand it could be again. Id never known there was a paradigm that linked instead of ranked. It was as if Id been assuming oppositionand suddenly found myself in a welcoming world; like putting ones foot down for a steep stair and discovering level ground. Still, when a Laguna law student from New Mexico complained that her courses didnt cite the Iroquois Confederacy as the model for the U.S. Constitutionor explain that this still existing Confederacy was the oldest continuing democracy in the worldI thought she was being romantic. But I read about the Constitutional Convention and discovered that Benjamin Franklin had indeed cited the Iroquois Confederacy as a model. He was well aware of its success in unifying vast areas of the United States and Canada by bringing together Native nations for mutual decisions but also allowing autonomy in local ones. He hoped the Constitution could do the same for the thirteen states. Thats why he invited two Iroquois men to Philadelphia as advisers. Among their first questions was said to be: Where are the women?