''They contemplated examples from Europe, examples from Greco-Roman times, examples from the Bible,'' he said. ''And they also looked at Native American examples, particularly the Iroquois Confederacy.''

One forum to share ideas between the colonists and the Iroquois, in the years leading to the French and Indian War, was the the Albany Congress between June 19 and July 9, 1754. At the meeting, representatives of the six Indian nations and seven colonies heard Benjamin Franklin. champion the Iroquois example as he presented his Plan of Union.

''It would be a strange thing,'' he told the assembly, ''if six nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming such a union, and yet it has subsisted for ages and appears indissolvable, and yet a like union should be impractical for 10 or a dozen English colonies.'' Granting of Powers

Starting next September, the curriculum for seventh and eighth graders in public schools in the state will include information about the Plan of Union, which was turned down by the English rulers, and the Iroquois influence on the United States Constitution, according to an associate in social studies education at the State Education Department, Kenneth Wade.

In addition to assembling evidence of their influence, the Iroquois group is also documenting the references to Indians in the Constitution and the ways in which the Government has dealt with the Indian nations.

The Constitution granted the Government power to regulate commerce, enter treaty agreements and make war and peace with the Indian tribes. The fact that treaty-making powers were taken from the states has become the basis of an Oneida claim to six million acres of land in the state, from Pennsylvania to Canada.

''There was an expectation in the U.S. Constitution that the practices toward the Indian nations would be the same as they had been with the British and other Europeans for the previous 150 years,'' said Howard Berman, a professor at the California Western School of Law in San Diego.