Paiute Lands: Democracy in the Early Americas

Conversations with Matthew Leivas Sr. (Chemehuevi Hereditary Chief) and others.

"The American experiment didn't begin in Philadelphia-it was already thousands of years old."

While history acknowledges the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) influence on the formative democratic traditions of the United States, a parallel truth remains hidden in the vast expanses of the West. Across four states, the lands of the Paiute and Chemehuevi held a sophisticated, egalitarian governance structure long before the ...