Editing Matrilineality (section)

==== Iroquois ====
{{Main|Iroquois}}
The [[Iroquois|Iroquois Confederacy or League]], combining five to six Native American [[Iroquois|Haudenosaunee]] nations or tribes before the [[United States|U.S.]] became a nation, operated by [[Great Law of Peace|The Great Binding Law of Peace]], a constitution by which women retained matrilineal-rights and participated in the League's political decision-making, including deciding whether to proceed to war,<ref>Jacobs, Renée E., ''Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the United States Constitution: How the Founding Fathers Ignored the Clan Mothers'', in ''American Indian Law Review'', vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 497–531, esp. pp. 498–509 (© author 1991).</ref> through what may have been a matriarchy<ref>Jacobs, Renée, ''Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the United States Constitution'', in ''American Indian Law Review'', ''op. cit.'', pp. 506–507.</ref> or "gyneocracy".<ref>Jacobs, Renée, ''Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the United States Constitution'', in ''American Indian Law Review'', ''op. cit.'', p. 505 & p. 506 n. 38, quoting Carr, L., ''The Social and Political Position of Women Among the Huron-Iroquois Tribes, Report of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology'', p. 223 (1884).</ref> The dates of this constitution's operation are unknown: the League was formed in approximately 1000–1450, but the constitution was oral until written in about 1880.<ref name="IroquoisGreatLawUSConst-p498">Jacobs, Renée, ''Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the United States Constitution'', in ''American Indian Law Review'', ''op. cit.'', p. 498 & n. 6.</ref> The League still exists.

Other Iroquoian-speaking peoples such as the [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]] and the [[Meherrin]], that were never part of the Iroquois League, nevertheless have traditionally possessed a matrilineal family structure.