BRUCE E. JOHANSEN is Professor of Communication and Native American Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He has been a participant in the debate over Native American precendents for democracy for 20 years, completing his Ph.D. dissertation on the topic in 1979. He is the author of "Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois and the Rationale for the American Revolution" (1982), coauthor of "Exemplar of Liberty: Native America and the Evolution of Democracy" (1991), and author of "Debating Democracy: The Native American Role" (forthcoming, 1996).