Never before has the Native American Festival presentation been so closely interrelated to American history. The focus for the 1975 presentations is the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy: the Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora, tribal groups whose government has been in effect for hundreds of years and served as a model for our federal system. The Grand Council directly influenced the creation of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the U.S. Canasatego, Chief of the Iroquois, is recorded as advising the Colonial Governors meeting in Lancaster in 1744:

"Our Wise Forefathers established Union and Amity between five nations. This has made us formidable: this has given us great Weight and Authority with our neighboring Nations. We are a powerful Confederacy; and by your observing the same Methods our Wise Forefathers have taken, you will acquire such Strength and Power. Therefore, whatever befalls you, never fall out with one another."