First Nations indeed. Those who followed were immigrants. All nations have their creation stories, where myth and history merge, but the real-life bias and violence against Native Americans has very likely obscured the similarities between the Iroquois Confederacy and the US Constitution. Thomas Jefferson politicized Native Americans calling them
merciless savages, when in fact,
all they wanted was their own freedom and independence. Even when, eventually, most sided with the British, they were not fighting against freedom;
like the American patriots, they fought to defend their freedom as they understood it. In Indian eyes, aggressive Americans posed a greater threat than did a distant king to their land, their liberty, and their way of life. The American War of Independence was an Indian war for independence as well.