June 30, 2026 • 36 mins
We’ve all been told the American Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. But that's not what the Declaration of Independence says. According to our founders, in their own words, what they were most upset about was Native Americans. How did we all miss that? Rebecca sits down with historian Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) to talk about how hunger for Indigenous land drove the Revolution. Welcome to First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how our current political moment was 250 years in the making.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rebecca Nagel. Here, Before we get into this episode, I
wanted to let you know that you can hear episodes
of First America early and ad free by signing up
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and other binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors.
Find Pushkin Plus on the First America Show page on
(00:21):
Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fm slash plus. Let's
get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Where do you want to park?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Shake?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Park?
Speaker 5 (00:36):
Great?
Speaker 6 (00:36):
I think you have to park in here.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
The four is that way. On a cold day in January,
I visited Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. I was there with
my friend Nick Guestis. He's a history professor at the
University of Minnesota and a citizen of the Lower Bural
Sioux tribe.
Speaker 6 (00:56):
This is the historic Fort Snelling. A walk closer to it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Can you just describe what the fort looks like?
Speaker 6 (01:04):
Well, the fort has a guard tower and then there's
a wall that surrounds the entire fort.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
There's a series of Next to the historic buildings are
modern day trash cans. To let you know, this is
a tourist attraction. School kids come here on field trips.
Speaker 6 (01:21):
This is a sacred site for Duckoaded people, which was
later appropriated by the US military to build their fort.
So look at that bald eagle. Told you were going
to see one. Yeah, I wish the United States never
appropriated the eagle.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Do you hear?
Speaker 6 (01:46):
Look at it, he's coming right towards us. I mean,
I don't know, man, I don't know how you can't
believe in the power of this stuff because those things
happen for a reason. Told you we were going to
see one.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
The history of what happened at Fort Selling is significant
to the Dakota people, and that history is acknowledged at
the site, but you have to go and find it.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
It was like a healing site right over here.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's next to an underpass down a long set of
stairs on the edge of the woods. Any subscribe what
the memorial looks like?
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Yeah, so it's a like a camp circle, but in
the center it looks like there's prayer tize, sage, tobacco,
et cetera, wrapped in cloth, and they're also prayer ties
in the trees that surround us.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Who do you think left the purer chase in the trees?
Speaker 6 (02:49):
I was assuming it's the descendants of those who experienced
that genocide.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Over sixteen hundred Dakota people were held here during the
winter of eighteen sixty two.
Speaker 6 (03:02):
This is the area actually where the concentration camp was
actually at Duco to people, people who dared to stand
up to the United States were put into a concentration
camp and all kinds of atrocities happened.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
The concentration camp was just one part of a broader
campaign to expel all Dakota people from the state of Minnesota.
The campaign also included death marches, massacres, bounties placed on
Indigenous heads, open air prisons, and mass executions.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
There was a lot of malnutrition, purposeful starvation. There were
reports of women being raped and violated. You know, it's
a sight of horrors.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Do you think most people who come to the spot,
do you think that they come here to honor the
atrocity happened here.
Speaker 6 (04:01):
No, they're doing winter sports recreation. I mean you can
see right here. You can see these parallel tracks people
cross country ski through this area.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
While we were standing there, some hikers walked by, Hi
walking around for its Snelling with Nick, it felt like
this perfect metaphor for our country, all our terrible history.
It's there. We just don't know how to talk about it.
(04:35):
This all started as a conversation between Nick and me
about four years ago. We were frustrated, well, I was
pissed at how Native people are erased from the story
of America. We wanted to tell the history of the
United States with Native people written back in. I wanted
to correct the record.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Go up here.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Ooh oh, okay. When we were in the car, Nick's
phone rang.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I'm gonna I've called me.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Somebody got shot.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
He pulled up the news on his phone.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
Breaking witnesses report a woman was shot in the face
by ICE while trying to flee in central Minneapolis.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Earlier that day, a woman named Renee Nicole Good had
tried to block ICE agents with her car. An agent
had just shot and killed her.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Damn, the photos are really bad. Oh god, it looks
like a deployed in airbag is just covered out blood.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
We parked and watched the video. Wow. Wow, that's awful.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's awful.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
When I was in Minneapolis last January, thousands of ICE
agents were on the ground.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
It's like a residential neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Federal agents had been rounding people up, including children and
sending them to detention facilities. People were afraid to leave
their homes. Parents stopped sending their kids to school. It's
interesting given what we were talking about this morning, of
the history of the Code of people being rounded up
and violently forced out of Minnesota. When I started this project,
(06:20):
I thought I was making a history podcast. I read books,
I interviewed historians, I went to important sites, I traveled
across the country. But then this thing kept happening. I
would be in a place learning about America's past, and
then the same thing would happen right here in our present.
(06:54):
You're listening to First America, the true story of how
the United States came to be and how our current
political moment is two hundred and fifty years in the making,
from Pushkin Industries and Critical Frequency. I'm your host, Rebecca
agele Gohein dal don Gelecayette, gain La, citizen of Cherokee Nation.
(07:40):
I didn't go to Minneapolis to report on Ice. I
had come to interview Nick. We just happened to be
at Fort Snelling the day Ice shot and killed Renee Good.
I don't know about you, but I don't believe in coincidences.
I can't sold my flight home and stayed to report
(08:02):
on what was happening. The next morning, there was a
protest back at Fort Snelling. I know because Fort Snelling
is also the site of ICE's headquarters in Minneapolis.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I was curious why you guys came today because, I mean,
you know, someone was literally killed yesterday for standing up
to ICE.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So is it scary to be here today? Knowing, yes, it's.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
Scary, and I'm angry, and the anger overcomes the fear.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I have a good friend.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
And she lived in Denmark during the German occupation, and
she has told me over and over again, you could
not be quiet. You must end up, because silence is
what allowed this to happen in the Second World War.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
How far are we from the historic Fort Snelling.
Speaker 8 (08:54):
I'm just right across Highway sixty two here, And do
you know.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
What happened there?
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Oh no, no, don't ask you those kinds of questions.
I'm not good with history. It's a historic fort, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
On the spot.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
I mean, the reason this is not happening here is
because of the ICE offices that are there, not because
of the historic fort.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
But the four in the eighteen sixties is actually a
concentration camp for Dakota people. Oh, I'm just curious if
any of that history feels relevant to what's happening now.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Yes, clearly, you know, but I mean our state. I
mean just yeah, I mean what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
You watched that video.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Thank god that person was there taking the video on
their cell phone yesterday so everyone can see what happened.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
You know. After leaving the protests, I went back to
see Niicustus at his office.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
The murder of Renee Good and three of Fort Snelling
are actually inseparable. First of all, ICE is headquartered on
the Fort Snelling Area campus.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Do you know if that's because it's federal land.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Yeah, it's headquartered there because it's federal land.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
And why is it federal land.
Speaker 6 (10:15):
It's federal land because it was once a military reservation
from the Zebulent Pike Treaty of eighteen o five. And
that was a treaty signed between some Dakota leaders and
the United States government to create a military outpost.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
It's not just the same place. The same thing is happening.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
People are being hunted in their neighborhoods and their schools.
Places that were considered sanctuary sites, such as hospitals and
churches are no longer off limits. One hundred and fifty
years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us,
and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
While I was out reporting this project, a lot happened.
Ice killed people in the streets. I watched a kid
in bunny ears get detained. Our government abducted the leader
of Venezuela and started a war with Iran. Analysts kept
talking about the stages of authoritarianism, and I found myself
(11:18):
asking this question. I think a lot of people are asking,
how is this happening? How is all this happening in
the United States. The answers I kept hearing YouTube lonely
white men, the economy didn't feel like enough. I started
(11:41):
to wonder if maybe the explanation was deeper than all that,
deeper than anything going on right now. I'm still trying
to figure it out. But the more time I spend
in the past, the more the present makes sense. Maybe
the answer is in that history we don't know how
to talk about. The first place I went on my
(12:13):
quest to put Native people back in the story of
America was the Declaration of Independence. This year is the
two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of that
famous document, and it made sense to me as a
starting place. I mean, it's the most popular origin story
of our country, right, But it turns out what I
thought I knew about the Declaration was wrong. Native people
(12:37):
aren't missing, We're there. We're one of the most important
lines in the document, but somehow no one knows about it.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
When in the courts of human events it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with A.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Couple of summers ago, on a hot July day, this
man in a large coat and a feathered hat walked
up a small set of stairs, surrounded by Revolutionary War
re enactors, Bayonets and the twins speakers of the Park
Services PA system. He began reading the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are in down by
their creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,
(13:40):
and the pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
At the time of the document's creation, a lot of
people were illiterate. Imprinting stuff was slow and expensive, so
word spread through public readings like this one.
Speaker 8 (13:53):
The history of the present King of Great Britain is
a history of repeated injuries.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
And us of pain.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I think of the Declaration of Independence like a breakup letter.
Our founders are breaking up with George, the third King
of England, and the declaration is a part of every breakup,
or at least every bad breakup, where you tell the
other person everything they did wrong. If Thomas Jefferson and
King George were having it out on the front lawn,
(14:25):
Jefferson would have his finger in George's face yelling, and
another thing.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
For imposing taxes on us without our consent.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
And so the Declaration is basically this long list of
complaints he.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Has plundered our scene.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
A lot of historians say that list has an.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Order, rabbits our coasts.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
It starts with smaller grievances or our tell and ends
with the biggest ones.
Speaker 9 (14:52):
And destroying the lives of our people.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
We've been told the American Revolution was fought over taxes
and representation. But the last complaint, the thing our founders
were most angry about, goes like this.
Speaker 9 (15:10):
He has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,
the marciless Indian savages.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
There's a racial slur in the Declaration of Independence. Native
people are called savages. Alongside those lofty ideals, our founders
included their deep hatred for Indigenous people.
Speaker 9 (15:33):
The marciless Indian savages, whose noble of warfare is an
undistinguished dystruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
In case you need a refresher, the popular story of
the American Revolution goes like this. Britain unjustly imposed taxes
on the colonists, and they got mad at But every
time they protested, like when they threw tea into the
Boston Harbor, the king just imposed harsher laws. The colonists
(16:12):
started to see their king as a tyrant. Some started
talking about independence continental conference. Late one night, Paul Revere
rode his horse to warn militias waiting outside Boston that
the British were coming. The next morning, the militia squared
off against the Brits, and the Revolutionary War began. Independence
(16:39):
A year later, our founding fathers gathered in Philadelphia to
write the Declaration of Independence. But for two and a
half centuries that document has been telling a different story.
(17:05):
According to our founders, in their own words, what they
were most angry about was Indians. How did we all
miss that? Can you please introduce yourself?
Speaker 6 (17:20):
Hi, I'm Ned Blackhawk.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I went to Connecticut to find out And what's your
tribal affiliation?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'm Western Shoshoni. And what do you do?
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Ned?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I teach history where Yo University. I was the first
tenured American Indian to teach at EO wait.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I just kind of want to back up, like, in
the entire history of yil You're the first Native person
to get tenure here.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yes, and I'm still the first, so the only tenured
faculty member? Yes?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Is it ever lonely? Ned wears a long ponytail and
the kind of sweater you imagine a professor would wear one.
I have been talking about this history for years. He,
along with Nick Estes and some other Indigenous scholars, helped
shape the idea for this podcast. I wanted Ned to
(18:10):
tell me the story of why the founders hated Indigenous
people so much they put it in the Declaration of Independence.
Net says that story starts a couple decades earlier with
this big, big war. Was it kind of like World
War Zero?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
No, it is the first World War.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It started as a fight over who would control North America,
and it eventually covered the globe. Great Britain one and
they got a bunch of land from France. This land
spans from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from
present day New York to Minnesota. The colonists are thrilled all.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Across British North America. Columnists are rejoicing. Sermons are being
offered in Sunday's pamphlets and almanacs are being written about
land possibilities in the interior. And there's this kind of
growing sense of shared kind of euphoria that the British
government and the British Empire are not just the largest
(19:08):
in world history, but also the most virtuous in or free.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Those celebrations come to a halt in the summer of
seventeen sixty three when news spreads of an indigenous uprising.
The land England took over from France is still controlled
by indigenous nations. What England actually wins in the war
in real terms, is forts. About thirteen forts stationed around
(19:32):
the Great Lakes as a new fort Boston Town. England
thinks it can push Native nations around.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
They don't listen to the native peoples. They don't trade with.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Them adequately, and that angers indigenous leaders. An Odawa chief
named Pontiac forms a multi national Indigenous military alliance to
push back. Rick, could you just tell me a little
bit more about who Pontiac is.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Pontiac is an Adawa leader, and he's fallen into close
affinity with the preacher whose Delaware or Lenape named Neolan
Niolan is the Delaware prophet. Pontiac is the political leader,
and together they start articulating a vision for the future
that is transformative. They decide that they no longer want
(20:21):
their followers to rely upon the goods of Europeans. And
it's a process kind of similar to what the colonists
are going through, because once they start reimagining themselves in
these ways, they decide that they're going to drive the
English out.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Pontiac and the soldiers go around and attack British forts.
One of those attacks was particularly brilliant. Some hones Shanabi
warriors go to this fort in northern Michigan, as they
often did, to trade. But while they're there, they pretend
to play a game of lacrosse right outside.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The fort, and one ball makes it over the fence,
and so they ask if they could kind of get
their ball returned, And so the fort officials are opening
the doors to return the ball that's been taken, and
flood of warriors have come in and destroy the fort.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Pontiac's military alliance attacks forts all over the Great Lakes region. Remember,
England took over about thirteen forts while Pontiac and his
alliance destroy eight.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
They signal to the English that peace is going to
be more costly than war has been for.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
You, and another costly war for the crown is a
big problem. England is broke, like Broke broke that global war.
England spent almost a decade fighting. It was expensive. The
Crown doesn't want to pay for another one, and.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
They decide, okay, we'll make peace with Pontiac.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
And why would the king do that, because, like England
does a global empire, So why wouldn't the King of
England want more land in North Okay?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Have you ever been to India? No? Have you heard
of the Caribbean?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Okay. The English crown governs millions of people around the world.
The British colonists in North America are a smallhole percentage
of that. The overwhelming economic priorities that the British Empire
has in the Western Hemisphere revolve around places like Jamaica
and Barbados, not Virginia or Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Is that because Barbados makes the Crown more money?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Correct, because Barbados produces large quantities of slave produced alcohol
and sugar that can be consumed across the British Empire.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So in the interests of Britain this global empire, peace
with indigenous nations makes the most sense. It saves the
Crown money. It serves the Crown's interests to preserve peace.
The King of England gives Pontiac and his confederacy what
they want.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
The Proclamation Line of October seventeen sixty three draws this
perimeter along the crests of the Appalachian Mountains.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
The Crown promises to keep settlers off their land.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
So everything east is British North America. Everything to the
west is to be reserved for the Indians.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
While peace with indigenous nations serves the Crown's global interests,
it angers the colonists because it takes from them what
they want most.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
More land land Mania, we might say, overwhelms the colonial system.
Gentry leaders, people like George Washington understood that their lands
were becoming increasingly less valuable, people like Washington and commanding
their enslaved populations to help bring nutrient rich soils from
(23:51):
the bottom of river beds because the fields are so
because the fields have become so depleted.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
People like George Washington made money from this thing called
land speculation. They buy up land that still belonged to
indigenous nations to sell for profit. Once Indigenous people were
pushed out the King's new boundary, it messed up their
whole scheme. The boundary line angered regular and poor people too.
People who couldn't afford to buy private property often squatted
(24:19):
on Indigenous land, pioneers, frontiersmen, settlers, whatever you want to
call them. We're already living west of the King's line.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And there are numbers of settlers who are forced back
east and they don't like it.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And there's this other thing about the King's concession to Pontiac.
The colonists don't like peace. You have to understand that
the colonists have been at war with Indigenous nations for
most of their lives, and now the King wants to
make peace with their enemies.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
In fact, the British are going to give them ammunition.
They're going to trade with them, They're going to recognize them. Hey,
wait a minute, didn't we just fight with you to
control this world.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
To help cement peace with Pontiac, England arranges to bring
gifts and supplies. This was how diplomacy between indigenous nations
and European powers worked back then.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Eighty supply mule trainings are coming. Massive actually logistical undertaking
if you think about it. At Pittsburgh, awaits these traders
who are going to take these goods to Pontiac's confederate.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
The colonists organize a militia basically a band of angry
white men with guns, and attack the convoy.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The first shots of the American Revolution are fired in
March of seventeen sixty five, when one of these back
country militia groups known as the Black Boys, attacks a
British force escorting trade goods to Pontiac.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
They're not attacking Indigenous people. The Black Boys are attacking
British troops.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
They say things like we are willing to die to
disrupt and destroy these relationships.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So before the colonists are willing to die, lofty ideals
like freedom and liberty and independence, they are willing to
die to stop the Crown from making peace with Indigenous nations.
And we know why they are willing to die for
this cause because they wrote a song about it.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
The Black Boys create an anthem, and that anthem calls
Native peoples the enemies of mankind.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I asked Ned to read part of it for me.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
In March the fifth and sixty five, their Indian presence
did arrive. But when this property is designed to serve
the enemy of mankind, it's high treason in the amount.
What does that line mean. It means that the British
trading policies of supplying Native peoples are supporting the enemies
(26:54):
of not just Southern society, but mankind. More broadly, the
Briton is committing treason not to the Crown, but to
humanity as a whole. And so this vision of life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness for mankind, the first time
mankind is being articulated that I'm aware of, is in
(27:15):
deeply anti indigenous settings.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Hating indigenous people, seeing us as less than human helps
the colonists come together and form a unified identity. It
helped them come together to fight for independence.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I do believe the start of the fall of the
British Empire North America began on the Pennsylvania frontier. The
sense of lawlessness, or essentially fashioning one's own self governing
principles and practices. This is happening before in Pennsylvania, before
it's happening in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
We teach the origins of the American Revolution as this
drumbeat of violence and protests happening in Boston over taxes,
But years before any of that, colonists are firing guns
at British troops over Native land.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And to my knowledge, that black Boy's history that we've
been discussing has yet to appear in any US history textbook.
Why we can't tell that story is.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
A mystery to me.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Before I left Yale, I gave ned a present.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
You want me to open this?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, you may or may not want it?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
A declaration of independence? Shock class, Thank you so much.
What does it say we the people?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
What to you does that shotglass represent? If we think
about how Americans think about their history.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I wanted to say something that is easily diedible.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Goes down Smith.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I think we as a country are losing a real
sense of understanding about our nation's past. The Declaration, which
is full of these beautiful, beautifully rendered sentences and paragraphs
about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Why is it important for the darker part of the
Declaration of Independence in the American Revolution? Why is it
important that Americans know about it?
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Well, if we don't understand the full context in which
our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context
in which our nation now finds itself.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I'm mad that Native people have been written out of
the story of the Revolution, but I'm also baffled by it.
I mean, it's kind of wild, right. It's not like
you have to dig through the archives to find out
that hunger for indigenous land drove the revolution. It's right
there in the Declaration of Independence, in one of our
country's most famous documents, in one of the most famous
(30:16):
documents in all of human history. But somehow no one
knows about it. It feels like a magic trick, like
making a rabbit disappear into a hat. And when I
started this project, that's what I thought. I was up
against the pervasive and systemic erasure of Native people from
(30:37):
US history. I thought the thing people couldn't see was me,
my community. And then I started to realize what's missing
from the story of America. It's bigger than that. After
I left Minneapolis, I kept hearing politicians say the same thing.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
What's happening right now in America is fundamentally on America.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
In there this is just so an American.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
I understand where this comes from. It comes from the
part of the Declaration of Independence. We were taught the
all men or created, equal life, liberty and happiness part.
But when we tell the whole story, the truth of
how and why our country was founded, the present moment
(31:19):
doesn't feel like a contradiction. Violently rounding people up, putting
people in detention, even shooting anyone who gets in the way.
Our government has done this before, not once, not twice,
many times. We just don't talk about that history because
(31:41):
it happened to indigenous people. I keep hearing people go
to Nazi Germany or Putin's Russia to try and understand
the rise of fascism. We don't need to leave the
United States to understand the horrors of authoritarianism. It's right
here in our own history. And if we want to
(32:03):
root that authoritarianism out, we have to know where and
how it started. If we think we can win by
defeating one leader, it will be like pruning a weed.
It will only come back stronger. I thought what was
missing from the story of America was Native people, but
(32:25):
then I realized without us, that story is wrong. What's
missing from the story of America is the truth. I
want us to know how we got here, because without
that we will never find our way out. Coming up
(32:49):
on this season of First America, are you guys big
chiefs fans?
Speaker 6 (32:53):
Hell?
Speaker 8 (32:53):
Yeah, yes, chiefs on three walder je.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
I feel like that's gonna happen a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Do Native Americans still exist?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Maybe?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I don't really think so.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
The entire plan for funding the federal government was acquiring
indigenous land and selling it.
Speaker 8 (33:15):
You were running for your lives and you saw behind
you everything you knew being burned down.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
What democracy rounds an entire ethnic group up at gunpoint
and puts them into a concentration camp like, not a
strong democracy, not a durable democracy, I would say, not
even a democracy. It's not is that a new thing.
This is what we've done. We're good at this. If
(33:49):
you like what you're hearing, please leave a review. It's
one of the best ways to help listeners find this show.
You can also support First America by subscribing or sharing
episodes with your friends. First America was made possible by
the generous support of the Henry Loose Foundation in the
n Yu Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project. Additional support came
from Indian Collective, First Nations Development Institute, Jajavio Tom of
(34:12):
San Manuel Nation, Borealist Philanthropy, and Black Liberation Indigenous Sovereignty Collective.
Our fiscal sponsor is Red Media. I dreamed this project
into the world in collaboration with an amazing group of
Indigenous scholars, including Maggie Blackhawk, Fond de Lac Ojibwe, Ned Blackhawk,
citizen of the tm Ok Tribe of Western Shoshone, Phil Deloria,
(34:34):
descendant of the Standing Rock and Yankton Sioux tribes, and
Nick Estes, citizen of the Lower Bural Sioux Tribe. I
Rebecca Nagel, citizen of Cherokee Nation, also reported, wrote, hosted,
and executive produced the show. First America is produced by
Critical Frequency and distributed by Pushkin Industries. Our managing producer
(34:56):
is Amy Westervelt, Senior producer and sound designer is Brendan.
Our story editor is Audrey Quinn. Jules Bradley, Kim nettterv
Petersa and Jordan gas Pore are our producers. Our editorial
consultant is Connie Walker, citizen of the Okineese First Nation.
Fact checking by Naomi bar Our partnership's director is Lindsay Crowder.
(35:19):
Our development consultant is Jenny Lawton. Our theme song is
by Raven Chikan, who is Diney. Scoring by Laura Ortman,
citizen of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, and Raven Chikon
artwork by Kelly Gonzalez, citizen of Cherokee Nation. The team
at Pushkin is Greta Cone CEO, Eric Sandler, Chief Strategy Officer,
(35:40):
Grace Ross VP of Business Development, Morgan Ratner, Director of Marketing,
Owen Miller Content Delivery Associate, Keira Posey Creative Partnerships Manager,
Jordan McMillan Social Media Manager, Brian Strabinick Senior Analytics Manager,
and Jake Flanagan Production Council
Rebecca Nagel. Here, Before we get into this episode, I
wanted to let you know that you can hear episodes
of First America early and ad free by signing up
for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks,
and other binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors.
Find Pushkin Plus on the First America Show page on
(00:21):
Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fm slash plus. Let's
get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Where do you want to park?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Shake?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Park?
Speaker 5 (00:36):
Great?
Speaker 6 (00:36):
I think you have to park in here.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
The four is that way. On a cold day in January,
I visited Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. I was there with
my friend Nick Guestis. He's a history professor at the
University of Minnesota and a citizen of the Lower Bural
Sioux tribe.
Speaker 6 (00:56):
This is the historic Fort Snelling. A walk closer to it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Can you just describe what the fort looks like?
Speaker 6 (01:04):
Well, the fort has a guard tower and then there's
a wall that surrounds the entire fort.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
There's a series of Next to the historic buildings are
modern day trash cans. To let you know, this is
a tourist attraction. School kids come here on field trips.
Speaker 6 (01:21):
This is a sacred site for Duckoaded people, which was
later appropriated by the US military to build their fort.
So look at that bald eagle. Told you were going
to see one. Yeah, I wish the United States never
appropriated the eagle.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Do you hear?
Speaker 6 (01:46):
Look at it, he's coming right towards us. I mean,
I don't know, man, I don't know how you can't
believe in the power of this stuff because those things
happen for a reason. Told you we were going to
see one.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
The history of what happened at Fort Selling is significant
to the Dakota people, and that history is acknowledged at
the site, but you have to go and find it.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
It was like a healing site right over here.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's next to an underpass down a long set of
stairs on the edge of the woods. Any subscribe what
the memorial looks like?
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Yeah, so it's a like a camp circle, but in
the center it looks like there's prayer tize, sage, tobacco,
et cetera, wrapped in cloth, and they're also prayer ties
in the trees that surround us.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Who do you think left the purer chase in the trees?
Speaker 6 (02:49):
I was assuming it's the descendants of those who experienced
that genocide.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Over sixteen hundred Dakota people were held here during the
winter of eighteen sixty two.
Speaker 6 (03:02):
This is the area actually where the concentration camp was
actually at Duco to people, people who dared to stand
up to the United States were put into a concentration
camp and all kinds of atrocities happened.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
The concentration camp was just one part of a broader
campaign to expel all Dakota people from the state of Minnesota.
The campaign also included death marches, massacres, bounties placed on
Indigenous heads, open air prisons, and mass executions.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
There was a lot of malnutrition, purposeful starvation. There were
reports of women being raped and violated. You know, it's
a sight of horrors.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Do you think most people who come to the spot,
do you think that they come here to honor the
atrocity happened here.
Speaker 6 (04:01):
No, they're doing winter sports recreation. I mean you can
see right here. You can see these parallel tracks people
cross country ski through this area.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
While we were standing there, some hikers walked by, Hi
walking around for its Snelling with Nick, it felt like
this perfect metaphor for our country, all our terrible history.
It's there. We just don't know how to talk about it.
(04:35):
This all started as a conversation between Nick and me
about four years ago. We were frustrated, well, I was
pissed at how Native people are erased from the story
of America. We wanted to tell the history of the
United States with Native people written back in. I wanted
to correct the record.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Go up here.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Ooh oh, okay. When we were in the car, Nick's
phone rang.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I'm gonna I've called me.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Somebody got shot.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
He pulled up the news on his phone.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
Breaking witnesses report a woman was shot in the face
by ICE while trying to flee in central Minneapolis.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Earlier that day, a woman named Renee Nicole Good had
tried to block ICE agents with her car. An agent
had just shot and killed her.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Damn, the photos are really bad. Oh god, it looks
like a deployed in airbag is just covered out blood.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
We parked and watched the video. Wow. Wow, that's awful.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's awful.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
When I was in Minneapolis last January, thousands of ICE
agents were on the ground.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
It's like a residential neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Federal agents had been rounding people up, including children and
sending them to detention facilities. People were afraid to leave
their homes. Parents stopped sending their kids to school. It's
interesting given what we were talking about this morning, of
the history of the Code of people being rounded up
and violently forced out of Minnesota. When I started this project,
(06:20):
I thought I was making a history podcast. I read books,
I interviewed historians, I went to important sites, I traveled
across the country. But then this thing kept happening. I
would be in a place learning about America's past, and
then the same thing would happen right here in our present.
(06:54):
You're listening to First America, the true story of how
the United States came to be and how our current
political moment is two hundred and fifty years in the making,
from Pushkin Industries and Critical Frequency. I'm your host, Rebecca
agele Gohein dal don Gelecayette, gain La, citizen of Cherokee Nation.
(07:40):
I didn't go to Minneapolis to report on Ice. I
had come to interview Nick. We just happened to be
at Fort Snelling the day Ice shot and killed Renee Good.
I don't know about you, but I don't believe in coincidences.
I can't sold my flight home and stayed to report
(08:02):
on what was happening. The next morning, there was a
protest back at Fort Snelling. I know because Fort Snelling
is also the site of ICE's headquarters in Minneapolis.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I was curious why you guys came today because, I mean,
you know, someone was literally killed yesterday for standing up
to ICE.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So is it scary to be here today? Knowing, yes, it's.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
Scary, and I'm angry, and the anger overcomes the fear.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I have a good friend.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
And she lived in Denmark during the German occupation, and
she has told me over and over again, you could
not be quiet. You must end up, because silence is
what allowed this to happen in the Second World War.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
How far are we from the historic Fort Snelling.
Speaker 8 (08:54):
I'm just right across Highway sixty two here, And do
you know.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
What happened there?
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Oh no, no, don't ask you those kinds of questions.
I'm not good with history. It's a historic fort, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
On the spot.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
I mean, the reason this is not happening here is
because of the ICE offices that are there, not because
of the historic fort.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
But the four in the eighteen sixties is actually a
concentration camp for Dakota people. Oh, I'm just curious if
any of that history feels relevant to what's happening now.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Yes, clearly, you know, but I mean our state. I
mean just yeah, I mean what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
You watched that video.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Thank god that person was there taking the video on
their cell phone yesterday so everyone can see what happened.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
You know. After leaving the protests, I went back to
see Niicustus at his office.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
The murder of Renee Good and three of Fort Snelling
are actually inseparable. First of all, ICE is headquartered on
the Fort Snelling Area campus.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Do you know if that's because it's federal land.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Yeah, it's headquartered there because it's federal land.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
And why is it federal land.
Speaker 6 (10:15):
It's federal land because it was once a military reservation
from the Zebulent Pike Treaty of eighteen o five. And
that was a treaty signed between some Dakota leaders and
the United States government to create a military outpost.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
It's not just the same place. The same thing is happening.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
People are being hunted in their neighborhoods and their schools.
Places that were considered sanctuary sites, such as hospitals and
churches are no longer off limits. One hundred and fifty
years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us,
and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
While I was out reporting this project, a lot happened.
Ice killed people in the streets. I watched a kid
in bunny ears get detained. Our government abducted the leader
of Venezuela and started a war with Iran. Analysts kept
talking about the stages of authoritarianism, and I found myself
(11:18):
asking this question. I think a lot of people are asking,
how is this happening? How is all this happening in
the United States. The answers I kept hearing YouTube lonely
white men, the economy didn't feel like enough. I started
(11:41):
to wonder if maybe the explanation was deeper than all that,
deeper than anything going on right now. I'm still trying
to figure it out. But the more time I spend
in the past, the more the present makes sense. Maybe
the answer is in that history we don't know how
to talk about. The first place I went on my
(12:13):
quest to put Native people back in the story of
America was the Declaration of Independence. This year is the
two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of that
famous document, and it made sense to me as a
starting place. I mean, it's the most popular origin story
of our country, right, But it turns out what I
thought I knew about the Declaration was wrong. Native people
(12:37):
aren't missing, We're there. We're one of the most important
lines in the document, but somehow no one knows about it.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
When in the courts of human events it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with A.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Couple of summers ago, on a hot July day, this
man in a large coat and a feathered hat walked
up a small set of stairs, surrounded by Revolutionary War
re enactors, Bayonets and the twins speakers of the Park
Services PA system. He began reading the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are in down by
their creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,
(13:40):
and the pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
At the time of the document's creation, a lot of
people were illiterate. Imprinting stuff was slow and expensive, so
word spread through public readings like this one.
Speaker 8 (13:53):
The history of the present King of Great Britain is
a history of repeated injuries.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
And us of pain.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I think of the Declaration of Independence like a breakup letter.
Our founders are breaking up with George, the third King
of England, and the declaration is a part of every breakup,
or at least every bad breakup, where you tell the
other person everything they did wrong. If Thomas Jefferson and
King George were having it out on the front lawn,
(14:25):
Jefferson would have his finger in George's face yelling, and
another thing.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
For imposing taxes on us without our consent.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
And so the Declaration is basically this long list of
complaints he.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Has plundered our scene.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
A lot of historians say that list has an.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Order, rabbits our coasts.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
It starts with smaller grievances or our tell and ends
with the biggest ones.
Speaker 9 (14:52):
And destroying the lives of our people.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
We've been told the American Revolution was fought over taxes
and representation. But the last complaint, the thing our founders
were most angry about, goes like this.
Speaker 9 (15:10):
He has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,
the marciless Indian savages.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
There's a racial slur in the Declaration of Independence. Native
people are called savages. Alongside those lofty ideals, our founders
included their deep hatred for Indigenous people.
Speaker 9 (15:33):
The marciless Indian savages, whose noble of warfare is an
undistinguished dystruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
In case you need a refresher, the popular story of
the American Revolution goes like this. Britain unjustly imposed taxes
on the colonists, and they got mad at But every
time they protested, like when they threw tea into the
Boston Harbor, the king just imposed harsher laws. The colonists
(16:12):
started to see their king as a tyrant. Some started
talking about independence continental conference. Late one night, Paul Revere
rode his horse to warn militias waiting outside Boston that
the British were coming. The next morning, the militia squared
off against the Brits, and the Revolutionary War began. Independence
(16:39):
A year later, our founding fathers gathered in Philadelphia to
write the Declaration of Independence. But for two and a
half centuries that document has been telling a different story.
(17:05):
According to our founders, in their own words, what they
were most angry about was Indians. How did we all
miss that? Can you please introduce yourself?
Speaker 6 (17:20):
Hi, I'm Ned Blackhawk.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I went to Connecticut to find out And what's your
tribal affiliation?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'm Western Shoshoni. And what do you do?
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Ned?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I teach history where Yo University. I was the first
tenured American Indian to teach at EO wait.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I just kind of want to back up, like, in
the entire history of yil You're the first Native person
to get tenure here.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yes, and I'm still the first, so the only tenured
faculty member? Yes?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Is it ever lonely? Ned wears a long ponytail and
the kind of sweater you imagine a professor would wear one.
I have been talking about this history for years. He,
along with Nick Estes and some other Indigenous scholars, helped
shape the idea for this podcast. I wanted Ned to
(18:10):
tell me the story of why the founders hated Indigenous
people so much they put it in the Declaration of Independence.
Net says that story starts a couple decades earlier with
this big, big war. Was it kind of like World
War Zero?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
No, it is the first World War.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It started as a fight over who would control North America,
and it eventually covered the globe. Great Britain one and
they got a bunch of land from France. This land
spans from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from
present day New York to Minnesota. The colonists are thrilled all.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Across British North America. Columnists are rejoicing. Sermons are being
offered in Sunday's pamphlets and almanacs are being written about
land possibilities in the interior. And there's this kind of
growing sense of shared kind of euphoria that the British
government and the British Empire are not just the largest
(19:08):
in world history, but also the most virtuous in or free.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Those celebrations come to a halt in the summer of
seventeen sixty three when news spreads of an indigenous uprising.
The land England took over from France is still controlled
by indigenous nations. What England actually wins in the war
in real terms, is forts. About thirteen forts stationed around
(19:32):
the Great Lakes as a new fort Boston Town. England
thinks it can push Native nations around.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
They don't listen to the native peoples. They don't trade with.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Them adequately, and that angers indigenous leaders. An Odawa chief
named Pontiac forms a multi national Indigenous military alliance to
push back. Rick, could you just tell me a little
bit more about who Pontiac is.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Pontiac is an Adawa leader, and he's fallen into close
affinity with the preacher whose Delaware or Lenape named Neolan
Niolan is the Delaware prophet. Pontiac is the political leader,
and together they start articulating a vision for the future
that is transformative. They decide that they no longer want
(20:21):
their followers to rely upon the goods of Europeans. And
it's a process kind of similar to what the colonists
are going through, because once they start reimagining themselves in
these ways, they decide that they're going to drive the
English out.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Pontiac and the soldiers go around and attack British forts.
One of those attacks was particularly brilliant. Some hones Shanabi
warriors go to this fort in northern Michigan, as they
often did, to trade. But while they're there, they pretend
to play a game of lacrosse right outside.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The fort, and one ball makes it over the fence,
and so they ask if they could kind of get
their ball returned, And so the fort officials are opening
the doors to return the ball that's been taken, and
flood of warriors have come in and destroy the fort.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Pontiac's military alliance attacks forts all over the Great Lakes region. Remember,
England took over about thirteen forts while Pontiac and his
alliance destroy eight.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
They signal to the English that peace is going to
be more costly than war has been for.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
You, and another costly war for the crown is a
big problem. England is broke, like Broke broke that global war.
England spent almost a decade fighting. It was expensive. The
Crown doesn't want to pay for another one, and.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
They decide, okay, we'll make peace with Pontiac.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
And why would the king do that, because, like England
does a global empire, So why wouldn't the King of
England want more land in North Okay?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Have you ever been to India? No? Have you heard
of the Caribbean?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Okay. The English crown governs millions of people around the world.
The British colonists in North America are a smallhole percentage
of that. The overwhelming economic priorities that the British Empire
has in the Western Hemisphere revolve around places like Jamaica
and Barbados, not Virginia or Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Is that because Barbados makes the Crown more money?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Correct, because Barbados produces large quantities of slave produced alcohol
and sugar that can be consumed across the British Empire.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So in the interests of Britain this global empire, peace
with indigenous nations makes the most sense. It saves the
Crown money. It serves the Crown's interests to preserve peace.
The King of England gives Pontiac and his confederacy what
they want.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
The Proclamation Line of October seventeen sixty three draws this
perimeter along the crests of the Appalachian Mountains.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
The Crown promises to keep settlers off their land.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
So everything east is British North America. Everything to the
west is to be reserved for the Indians.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
While peace with indigenous nations serves the Crown's global interests,
it angers the colonists because it takes from them what
they want most.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
More land land Mania, we might say, overwhelms the colonial system.
Gentry leaders, people like George Washington understood that their lands
were becoming increasingly less valuable, people like Washington and commanding
their enslaved populations to help bring nutrient rich soils from
(23:51):
the bottom of river beds because the fields are so
because the fields have become so depleted.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
People like George Washington made money from this thing called
land speculation. They buy up land that still belonged to
indigenous nations to sell for profit. Once Indigenous people were
pushed out the King's new boundary, it messed up their
whole scheme. The boundary line angered regular and poor people too.
People who couldn't afford to buy private property often squatted
(24:19):
on Indigenous land, pioneers, frontiersmen, settlers, whatever you want to
call them. We're already living west of the King's line.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And there are numbers of settlers who are forced back
east and they don't like it.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And there's this other thing about the King's concession to Pontiac.
The colonists don't like peace. You have to understand that
the colonists have been at war with Indigenous nations for
most of their lives, and now the King wants to
make peace with their enemies.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
In fact, the British are going to give them ammunition.
They're going to trade with them, They're going to recognize them. Hey,
wait a minute, didn't we just fight with you to
control this world.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
To help cement peace with Pontiac, England arranges to bring
gifts and supplies. This was how diplomacy between indigenous nations
and European powers worked back then.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Eighty supply mule trainings are coming. Massive actually logistical undertaking
if you think about it. At Pittsburgh, awaits these traders
who are going to take these goods to Pontiac's confederate.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
The colonists organize a militia basically a band of angry
white men with guns, and attack the convoy.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The first shots of the American Revolution are fired in
March of seventeen sixty five, when one of these back
country militia groups known as the Black Boys, attacks a
British force escorting trade goods to Pontiac.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
They're not attacking Indigenous people. The Black Boys are attacking
British troops.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
They say things like we are willing to die to
disrupt and destroy these relationships.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So before the colonists are willing to die, lofty ideals
like freedom and liberty and independence, they are willing to
die to stop the Crown from making peace with Indigenous nations.
And we know why they are willing to die for
this cause because they wrote a song about it.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
The Black Boys create an anthem, and that anthem calls
Native peoples the enemies of mankind.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I asked Ned to read part of it for me.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
In March the fifth and sixty five, their Indian presence
did arrive. But when this property is designed to serve
the enemy of mankind, it's high treason in the amount.
What does that line mean. It means that the British
trading policies of supplying Native peoples are supporting the enemies
(26:54):
of not just Southern society, but mankind. More broadly, the
Briton is committing treason not to the Crown, but to
humanity as a whole. And so this vision of life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness for mankind, the first time
mankind is being articulated that I'm aware of, is in
(27:15):
deeply anti indigenous settings.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Hating indigenous people, seeing us as less than human helps
the colonists come together and form a unified identity. It
helped them come together to fight for independence.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I do believe the start of the fall of the
British Empire North America began on the Pennsylvania frontier. The
sense of lawlessness, or essentially fashioning one's own self governing
principles and practices. This is happening before in Pennsylvania, before
it's happening in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
We teach the origins of the American Revolution as this
drumbeat of violence and protests happening in Boston over taxes,
But years before any of that, colonists are firing guns
at British troops over Native land.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And to my knowledge, that black Boy's history that we've
been discussing has yet to appear in any US history textbook.
Why we can't tell that story is.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
A mystery to me.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Before I left Yale, I gave ned a present.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
You want me to open this?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, you may or may not want it?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
A declaration of independence? Shock class, Thank you so much.
What does it say we the people?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
What to you does that shotglass represent? If we think
about how Americans think about their history.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I wanted to say something that is easily diedible.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Goes down Smith.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I think we as a country are losing a real
sense of understanding about our nation's past. The Declaration, which
is full of these beautiful, beautifully rendered sentences and paragraphs
about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Why is it important for the darker part of the
Declaration of Independence in the American Revolution? Why is it
important that Americans know about it?
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Well, if we don't understand the full context in which
our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context
in which our nation now finds itself.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I'm mad that Native people have been written out of
the story of the Revolution, but I'm also baffled by it.
I mean, it's kind of wild, right. It's not like
you have to dig through the archives to find out
that hunger for indigenous land drove the revolution. It's right
there in the Declaration of Independence, in one of our
country's most famous documents, in one of the most famous
(30:16):
documents in all of human history. But somehow no one
knows about it. It feels like a magic trick, like
making a rabbit disappear into a hat. And when I
started this project, that's what I thought. I was up
against the pervasive and systemic erasure of Native people from
(30:37):
US history. I thought the thing people couldn't see was me,
my community. And then I started to realize what's missing
from the story of America. It's bigger than that. After
I left Minneapolis, I kept hearing politicians say the same thing.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
What's happening right now in America is fundamentally on America.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
In there this is just so an American.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
I understand where this comes from. It comes from the
part of the Declaration of Independence. We were taught the
all men or created, equal life, liberty and happiness part.
But when we tell the whole story, the truth of
how and why our country was founded, the present moment
(31:19):
doesn't feel like a contradiction. Violently rounding people up, putting
people in detention, even shooting anyone who gets in the way.
Our government has done this before, not once, not twice,
many times. We just don't talk about that history because
(31:41):
it happened to indigenous people. I keep hearing people go
to Nazi Germany or Putin's Russia to try and understand
the rise of fascism. We don't need to leave the
United States to understand the horrors of authoritarianism. It's right
here in our own history. And if we want to
(32:03):
root that authoritarianism out, we have to know where and
how it started. If we think we can win by
defeating one leader, it will be like pruning a weed.
It will only come back stronger. I thought what was
missing from the story of America was Native people, but
(32:25):
then I realized without us, that story is wrong. What's
missing from the story of America is the truth. I
want us to know how we got here, because without
that we will never find our way out. Coming up
(32:49):
on this season of First America, are you guys big
chiefs fans?
Speaker 6 (32:53):
Hell?
Speaker 8 (32:53):
Yeah, yes, chiefs on three walder je.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
I feel like that's gonna happen a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Do Native Americans still exist?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Maybe?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I don't really think so.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
The entire plan for funding the federal government was acquiring
indigenous land and selling it.
Speaker 8 (33:15):
You were running for your lives and you saw behind
you everything you knew being burned down.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
What democracy rounds an entire ethnic group up at gunpoint
and puts them into a concentration camp like, not a
strong democracy, not a durable democracy, I would say, not
even a democracy. It's not is that a new thing.
This is what we've done. We're good at this. If
(33:49):
you like what you're hearing, please leave a review. It's
one of the best ways to help listeners find this show.
You can also support First America by subscribing or sharing
episodes with your friends. First America was made possible by
the generous support of the Henry Loose Foundation in the
n Yu Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project. Additional support came
from Indian Collective, First Nations Development Institute, Jajavio Tom of
(34:12):
San Manuel Nation, Borealist Philanthropy, and Black Liberation Indigenous Sovereignty Collective.
Our fiscal sponsor is Red Media. I dreamed this project
into the world in collaboration with an amazing group of
Indigenous scholars, including Maggie Blackhawk, Fond de Lac Ojibwe, Ned Blackhawk,
citizen of the tm Ok Tribe of Western Shoshone, Phil Deloria,
(34:34):
descendant of the Standing Rock and Yankton Sioux tribes, and
Nick Estes, citizen of the Lower Bural Sioux Tribe. I
Rebecca Nagel, citizen of Cherokee Nation, also reported, wrote, hosted,
and executive produced the show. First America is produced by
Critical Frequency and distributed by Pushkin Industries. Our managing producer
(34:56):
is Amy Westervelt, Senior producer and sound designer is Brendan.
Our story editor is Audrey Quinn. Jules Bradley, Kim nettterv
Petersa and Jordan gas Pore are our producers. Our editorial
consultant is Connie Walker, citizen of the Okineese First Nation.
Fact checking by Naomi bar Our partnership's director is Lindsay Crowder.
(35:19):
Our development consultant is Jenny Lawton. Our theme song is
by Raven Chikan, who is Diney. Scoring by Laura Ortman,
citizen of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, and Raven Chikon
artwork by Kelly Gonzalez, citizen of Cherokee Nation. The team
at Pushkin is Greta Cone CEO, Eric Sandler, Chief Strategy Officer,
(35:40):
Grace Ross VP of Business Development, Morgan Ratner, Director of Marketing,
Owen Miller Content Delivery Associate, Keira Posey Creative Partnerships Manager,
Jordan McMillan Social Media Manager, Brian Strabinick Senior Analytics Manager,
and Jake Flanagan Production Council
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