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