From Cultural Survival: On July 14, 1923, the Hereditary Chief of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Deskaheh Levi General (Cayuga), traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to speak before the League of Nations. He sought to obtain international recognition of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (historically known as the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora Nations) as a sovereign Indigenous Nation governed by a hereditary council of chiefs. To this day, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is considered one of the oldest self-governing Peoples in the world. They are governed by the Great Law, established more than 1,000 years ago—long before the arrival of colonizers in North America. The League of Nations, which was established in 1920 and served as the predecessor to the United Nations, refused to hear Deskaheh’s petition on the behalf of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Member states deemed it inadmissible, maintaining that Canada had jurisdiction over the Confederacy and the Six Nations. On August 6, 1923, Deskaheh tried again with a letter to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations titled “The Red Man's Appeal For Justice.” Despite the League of Nation’s refusal to hear his petition, the mayor of Geneva provided him with the space to deliver his speech before the people of the city.