The American revolution was inspired by native peoples and a few decades later the United States tried to exterminate them.
Danilo Antón


The American revolution (and therefore its continuation in Europe, the French revolution) is largely due to the ideological inspiration of neighboring indigenous societies.
During the independence struggles the colonists organized into groups called the Tammany Society in honor of a Delaware Lenni-Lenape chief who received William Penn when he arrived in America on October 27, 1682 and then signed an important treaty with the colonists an decade later.
Tammany was considered a character of legend, great feats were attributed to him and he dedicated the first of May, which since then became the day of Saint Tammany and later the day of American identity. Poets sang odes to Tammany, and soldiers and civilians sang songs in his honor. The organized revolutionary societies like Society of San Tammany, Society of Chief Tammany, Society of King Tammany or simply the Society of Tammany appeared in all the colonies.
All Tammany societies followed an Indian, more particularly Iroquois, model of organization. They represented thirteen tribes corresponding to the thirteen colonies, each with its totem. The eagle was the New York totem, the New Hampshire otter, the Massachusetts panther, the Rhode Island beaver, the Connecticut bear, the New Jersey turtle, the Pennsylvani rattlesnake, the Delaware tiger, the Maryland fox, Virginia deer, North Carolina buffalo, South Carolina raccoon, and Georgia wolf.
Each society was chaired by a Grand Sachem and the President of the United States was recognized as the Great Grand Sachem45. The meeting rooms were called the "wigwam" and used bows, arrows, and holy pipes.
Several years later the Tammany societies fervently supported the French revolution and then were the natural hosts of the Indian delegations that came to visit the United States.
Just as some colonists had formed the Society of Tammany, other revolutionaries formed the “Improved Order of the Red Men”. Like the Tammany societies, the "Red Men" were organized into tribes, under the presidency of "sachems" they met in "wigwams" and practiced Indian rituals. However, they had some differences; they were much more radical, they maintained that the colonists had learned about democracy from the American Indians, they said that the Europeans who had come to America "never knew what true freedom really was, since they had lived under kings all their lives, and without having a vote or a voice in their own government "46. The Red Men offered their prayers to the Great Spirit47 denying Christianity and in their earliest years they had a very clear anti-capitalist ideology. They called their members to emulate the Native Americans who had their property in common.
From "Amerrique, Orphans of Paradise", Danilo Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones.
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