1725

The French political philosopher Charles-Louis de Secondat, aka Baron Montesquieu, was in Paris. In 1748, he published “The Spirit of the Laws,” which inspired the Founding Fathers of the United States to draft the American Constitution, which protected the spirit of individual liberty. Individual liberty (the freedom to stray, to disobey, to experiment with new social forms) and skepticism toward revealed religion have also been typical of Native American cultures in North America for centuries. It may be no coincidence, in this sense, that in 1725, the French explorer Bourgmont brought a Native American delegation (Osage and Missouri Indians) to Paris and organized public meetings in Paris to connect with these “savage diplomats.” These meetings were attended by illustrious European intellectuals. We don’t know who exactly they met, but Montesquieu was in Paris at the time and was studying these issues, so it would seem strange that he didn’t attend. In any case, his book’s speculations on the modalities of savage government seem to be an exact reproduction of what the European philosopher might have heard from Native Americans. It would be excessive to say that the Enlightenment took its first steps in Native American communities, but it is possible to imagine a possible, non-Eurocentric future history in which such a hypothesis would not be treated as scandalous and absurd by definition.