In what ways was the Iroquois Confederacy like the United States' government?

The main way in which the Iroquois Confederacy was like
the US government was that both were made up of representatives from groups that
originally considered themselves to be separate nations.  The Iroquois Confederacy was
made up of the Five Nations while the US government was made up of (originally) the 13
states.  In both cases, groups that considered themselves independent came together
because of a need to protect themselves from outside enemies. This is the major
similarity between these two entities; they were both made up of formerly independent
nations that joined together as a way to become more powerful and more secure against
external enemies.