[Restorer]

The article was better than I would have guesses. It basically says that some of the American ideal of equality and lack of respect for "elites" derives from the essentially libertarian societies of the Indian tribes of the northeast. Which is not utterly implausible.

Of course, to keep this happy attitude towards the Indians, you are forced to ignore a lot of warfare and torture, as well as the social systems found in many other areas of the Americas. The Iroquois and other NE tribes were also not nearly as egalitarian with regard to their women as the author states.

[laishly]

"The Iroquois and other NE tribes were also not nearly as egalitarian with regard to their women as the author states."

You got that right! They sided with the British in the Revolution and in a series of raids burned over 1,000 settlements throughout western NY and central and western PA. Washington dispatched 5,000 militia with the express goal of destroying, not simply defeating, the Six Nations, which they did, slaughtering and burning Indian settlements just as the Indians had done to the settlers. The Six Nations ceased to be a factor in the War and never recovered.