WEBVTT - Merciless Indian Savages | First America 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:16.420 Pushkin. 0:00:19.420 --> 0:00:22.280 There's a sentence in the Declaration of Independence that almost 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.000 no one talks about. It's the last grievance, the climax, 0:00:26.700 --> 0:00:29.700 the thing the founders were most angry about. And it 0:00:29.790 --> 0:00:34.150 isn't about taxes or representation, like we've been told. It's 0:00:34.190 --> 0:00:39.510 about Native Americans. He has excited the merciless Indian savages, 0:00:39.850 --> 0:00:43.559 it reads, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished 0:00:43.620 --> 0:00:49.510 destruction of all ages and sexes, and conditions. America celebrates 0:00:49.550 --> 0:00:53.690 the 250th anniversary of its founding this year. And somehow, 0:00:53.990 --> 0:00:56.850 for a century and a half, America managed to skim 0:00:56.950 --> 0:01:00.530 right past that line, or explain it away, or simply 0:01:00.610 --> 0:01:04.110 forget it was there. How does a whole country miss 0:01:04.170 --> 0:01:08.190 a point of its own founding document? That's the question 0:01:08.530 --> 0:01:11.089 at the heart of a new podcast called First America. 0:01:11.750 --> 0:01:15.320 It's hosted by Rebecca Nagel, an indigenous journalist, and the 0:01:15.340 --> 0:01:19.960 host of Crooked's This Land podcast. First America reveals the 0:01:20.020 --> 0:01:23.050 real story of why the colonists rebelled, what kind of 0:01:23.130 --> 0:01:27.209 government they created, and crucially, how our current political moment 0:01:27.569 --> 0:01:31.010 was 250 years in the making. We have a word 0:01:31.090 --> 0:01:34.289 for the stories nations tell about themselves that leave out 0:01:34.350 --> 0:01:38.749 the uncomfortable parts. We call it a myth. First America 0:01:38.910 --> 0:01:43.720 isn't interested in myths. is interested in unveiling how the Founders' 0:01:43.780 --> 0:01:49.260 treatment of Indigenous nations and their resistance shaped U.S. democracy. 0:01:50.340 --> 0:01:53.540 Here's the first episode of First America. Hear more episodes 0:01:53.580 --> 0:01:57.540 of First America on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get podcasts. 0:02:04.860 --> 0:02:06.680 Where do you want us to park? Should we park 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:07.140 right here? 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:08.340 I think you have to park in here. 0:02:08.540 --> 0:02:09.619 The port is that way? 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:10.269 Yeah, the port's that way. 0:02:11.060 --> 0:02:14.739 On a cold day in January, I visited Fort Snelling 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.780 in Minneapolis. I was there with my friend Nick Estes. 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.560 He's a history professor at the University of Minnesota and 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:25.000 a citizen of the Lower Borough Sioux Tribe. 0:02:26.640 --> 0:02:30.260 This is the historic Fort Snelling. Do you want to 0:02:30.340 --> 0:02:31.340 walk closer to it? 0:02:31.580 --> 0:02:33.900 Can you just describe what the fort looks like? 0:02:34.500 --> 0:02:38.080 Well, the fort has a guard tower, and then there's 0:02:38.140 --> 0:02:39.920 a wall that surrounds the entire fort. 0:02:42.290 --> 0:02:45.310 Next to the historic buildings are modern-day trash cans to 0:02:45.350 --> 0:02:49.050 let you know this is a tourist attraction. School kids 0:02:49.190 --> 0:02:50.230 come here on field trips. 0:02:51.690 --> 0:02:56.460 This is a sacred site for Dakota people, which was 0:02:56.490 --> 0:02:59.580 later appropriated by the U.S. military to build their fort. 0:03:00.060 --> 0:03:05.820 So look at that bald eagle. Told you we were 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:06.380 going to see one. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:07.140 Yeah. 0:03:09.270 --> 0:03:11.530 I wish the United States never appropriated the eagle. 0:03:11.550 --> 0:03:12.760 Do you hear him? 0:03:17.060 --> 0:03:20.800 Look at him. He's coming right towards us. I mean, 0:03:20.820 --> 0:03:23.740 I don't know, man. I don't know how you can't 0:03:23.780 --> 0:03:26.810 believe in the power of this stuff because those things 0:03:26.850 --> 0:03:31.030 happen for a reason. I told you we were going 0:03:31.050 --> 0:03:31.550 to see one. 0:03:34.650 --> 0:03:37.590 The history of what happened at Fort Snelling is significant 0:03:37.620 --> 0:03:41.320 to the Dakota people. And that history is acknowledged at 0:03:41.340 --> 0:03:41.760 the site. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:43.640 But you have to go and find it. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.940 It's like a healing site right over here. 0:03:48.100 --> 0:03:51.830 It's next to an underpass. Down a long set of 0:03:51.890 --> 0:03:58.070 stairs on the edge of the woods. Can you describe 0:03:58.170 --> 0:03:59.770 what the memorial looks like? 0:04:00.210 --> 0:04:05.300 Yeah, so it's like a camp circle. But in the center, 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:09.340 it looks like there's prayer ties, sage, tobacco, et cetera, 0:04:09.580 --> 0:04:13.170 wrapped in cloth. And there are also prayer ties in 0:04:13.190 --> 0:04:15.090 the trees that surround us. 0:04:15.110 --> 0:04:19.050 Who do you think left the prayer ties in the trees? 0:04:19.070 --> 0:04:24.859 I'm assuming it's the descendants of those who experienced that genocide. 0:04:26.380 --> 0:04:30.520 Over 1,600 Dakota people were held here during the winter 0:04:30.540 --> 0:04:32.580 of 1862. 0:04:32.780 --> 0:04:36.380 This is the area actually where the concentration camp was 0:04:36.460 --> 0:04:42.120 actually at. Dakota people, people who dared to stand up 0:04:42.180 --> 0:04:45.700 to the United States, were put into a concentration camp 0:04:46.820 --> 0:04:50.300 and all kinds of atrocities happened. 0:04:51.050 --> 0:04:54.130 The concentration camp was just one part of a broader 0:04:54.190 --> 0:04:56.670 campaign to expel all Dakota. 0:04:56.330 --> 0:04:58.410 People from the state of Minnesota. 0:04:58.430 --> 0:05:04.010 The campaign also included death marches, massacres, Bounties placed on 0:05:04.050 --> 0:05:08.250 Indigenous heads, open-air prisons, and mass executions. 0:05:08.870 --> 0:05:14.350 There was a lot of malnutrition, purposeful starvation. There were 0:05:14.450 --> 0:05:20.620 reports of women being raped and violated. You know, it's 0:05:20.660 --> 0:05:21.950 a site of horrors. 0:05:24.540 --> 0:05:25.860 Do you think most. 0:05:25.660 --> 0:05:27.980 People who come to this spot, do you think that 0:05:28.020 --> 0:05:30.640 they come here to honor the atrocity that happened here? 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.580 No, they're doing winter sports, recreation. I mean, you can 0:05:35.620 --> 0:05:40.240 see right here, you can see these parallel tracks. People 0:05:40.580 --> 0:05:42.060 cross-country ski through this area. 0:05:43.090 --> 0:05:46.430 While we were standing there, some hikers walked by. Hi. 0:05:49.390 --> 0:05:52.230 Walking around Fort Snelling with Nick, it felt like this 0:05:52.390 --> 0:05:54.550 perfect metaphor for our country. 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:00.810 All our terrible history... It's there. We just don't know 0:06:00.850 --> 0:06:01.760 how to talk about it. 0:06:05.810 --> 0:06:09.150 This all started as a conversation between Nick and me 0:06:09.290 --> 0:06:13.750 about four years ago. We were frustrated, well, I was pissed, 0:06:14.010 --> 0:06:15.349 at how Native people. 0:06:15.170 --> 0:06:17.710 Are erased from the story of America. 0:06:18.370 --> 0:06:20.910 We wanted to tell the history of the United States 0:06:21.150 --> 0:06:23.170 with Native people written back in. 0:06:23.830 --> 0:06:29.840 I wanted to correct the record. Uh-oh, okay, I need 0:06:29.980 --> 0:06:32.539 to merge. When we were in the car, Nick's phone rang. 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:34.110 My wife called me. 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.469 Somebody got shot. He pulled up the news on his phone. 0:06:38.910 --> 0:06:42.630 Breaking witnesses report a woman was shot in the face 0:06:42.690 --> 0:06:45.570 by ice while trying to flee in central Minneapolis. 0:06:47.170 --> 0:06:51.630 Earlier that day, a woman named Renee Nicole Good had 0:06:51.670 --> 0:06:54.990 tried to block ice agents with her car. An agent 0:06:55.070 --> 0:06:57.150 had just shot and killed her. Damned. 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:58.820 The photos are really bad. 0:06:58.840 --> 0:06:59.520 Oh, God. 0:07:00.540 --> 0:07:03.700 It looks like a deployed airbag is just covered in blood. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:06.920 We parked and watched the video. 0:07:10.660 --> 0:07:11.020 Wow. 0:07:12.620 --> 0:07:13.990 Wow. That's awful. 0:07:14.230 --> 0:07:14.930 That's awful. 0:07:16.710 --> 0:07:20.190 When I was in Minneapolis last January, thousands of ICE 0:07:20.250 --> 0:07:21.450 agents were on the ground. 0:07:21.630 --> 0:07:23.210 It's in, like, a residential neighborhood. 0:07:24.390 --> 0:07:28.180 Federal agents had been rounding people up. including children, and 0:07:28.220 --> 0:07:32.160 sending them to detention facilities. People were afraid to leave 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:35.100 their homes. Parents stopped sending their. 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:35.800 Kids to school. 0:07:36.970 --> 0:07:39.110 Interesting, given what we were talking about this morning of 0:07:39.430 --> 0:07:43.850 the history of Dakota people being rounded up and violently 0:07:43.930 --> 0:07:50.970 forced out of Minnesota. When I started this project, I 0:07:51.010 --> 0:07:52.870 thought I was making a history podcast. 0:07:53.390 --> 0:07:54.000 I read books. 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.440 I interviewed historians. I went to important sites. I traveled 0:07:57.540 --> 0:07:58.540 across the country. 0:07:59.220 --> 0:08:01.360 But then this thing kept happening. 0:08:01.380 --> 0:08:05.430 I would be in a place learning about America's past, 0:08:06.050 --> 0:08:10.190 and then the same thing would happen right here in 0:08:10.230 --> 0:08:28.250 our present. You're listening to First America, the true story 0:08:28.390 --> 0:08:31.110 of how the United States came to be and how 0:08:31.150 --> 0:08:35.090 our current political moment is 250 years in the making. 0:08:35.829 --> 0:08:40.540 From Pushkin Industries and Critical Frequency, I'm your host, Rebecca Nagel. 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.040 Citizen of Cherokee Nation. 0:09:10.410 --> 0:09:13.769 I didn't go to Minneapolis to report on ICE. I 0:09:13.809 --> 0:09:17.579 had come to interview Nick. We just happened to be 0:09:17.739 --> 0:09:21.179 at Fort Snelling the day ICE shot and killed Renee Good. 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.020 I don't know about you, but I don't believe in coincidences. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.389 I canceled my flight home and stayed to report on 0:09:32.449 --> 0:09:39.130 what was happening. The next morning, there was a protest. 0:09:39.809 --> 0:09:46.410 back at Fort Snelling. Because Fort Snelling is also the 0:09:46.469 --> 0:09:50.840 site of ICE's headquarters in Minneapolis. I was curious why 0:09:50.900 --> 0:09:53.179 you guys came today because, I mean, you know, someone 0:09:53.219 --> 0:09:56.179 was literally killed yesterday for standing up to ICE. So 0:09:56.339 --> 0:09:58.820 is it scary to be here today knowing the violence? 0:09:58.979 --> 0:10:02.989 Yes, it's scary and I'm angry and the anger overcomes 0:10:03.069 --> 0:10:03.529 the fear. 0:10:03.550 --> 0:10:04.950 I have a good. 0:10:04.849 --> 0:10:08.569 Friend and she lived in Denmark during the German occupation 0:10:08.849 --> 0:10:11.019 and she has told me over and over again, you 0:10:11.239 --> 0:10:15.700 cannot be quiet. You must stand up because silence is 0:10:15.739 --> 0:10:18.079 what allowed this to happen in the Second World War. 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.599 How far are we from the historic Fort Snelling? 0:10:25.079 --> 0:10:26.800 Just right across Highway 62 here. 0:10:28.300 --> 0:10:29.819 And do you know what happened there? 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.670 Oh, no, no, don't ask me those kinds of questions. 0:10:33.770 --> 0:10:42.689 I'm not good with history. It's a historic fort. It's historic. Yeah, 0:10:42.709 --> 0:10:44.239 sorry to put you on the spot. 0:10:44.260 --> 0:10:46.220 I mean, the reason this is all happening here is 0:10:46.260 --> 0:10:49.179 because of the ice offices that are there, not because 0:10:49.219 --> 0:10:50.280 of the historic fort. 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:50.980 Yeah. 0:10:53.140 --> 0:10:57.079 And the 1860s was actually a concentration camp for Dakota people. 0:10:57.339 --> 0:10:59.650 I'm just curious if any of that history feels relevant 0:10:59.670 --> 0:11:00.609 to what's happening now. 0:11:01.250 --> 0:11:02.449 Yes, clearly. 0:11:02.670 --> 0:11:03.870 But I mean, our state. 0:11:06.290 --> 0:11:10.130 I mean, you watch that video. Thank God that person 0:11:10.170 --> 0:11:13.530 was there taking the video on their cell phone yesterday. 0:11:13.589 --> 0:11:16.370 So everyone can see what happened. 0:11:19.530 --> 0:11:22.050 After leaving the protest, I went back to see Nick 0:11:22.130 --> 0:11:23.390 Estes at his office. 0:11:26.770 --> 0:11:30.590 The murder of Renee Good and the history of Fort 0:11:30.609 --> 0:11:35.450 Snelling are actually inseparable. First of all, ICE is headquartered 0:11:35.829 --> 0:11:37.830 on the Fort Snelling area campus. 0:11:38.809 --> 0:11:41.590 Do you know if that's because it's federal land? 0:11:41.609 --> 0:11:44.189 Yeah, it's headquartered there because it's federal land. 0:11:44.829 --> 0:11:46.050 And why is it federal land? 0:11:46.150 --> 0:11:49.189 It's federal land because it was once a military reservation. 0:11:49.959 --> 0:11:54.239 from the Zebulon Pike Treaty of 1805. And that was 0:11:54.300 --> 0:11:57.610 a treaty signed between some Dakota leaders and the United 0:11:57.650 --> 0:12:00.210 States government to create a military outpost. 0:12:01.609 --> 0:12:05.770 It's not just the same place. The same thing is happening. 0:12:06.329 --> 0:12:09.429 People are being hunted in their neighborhoods, in their schools, 0:12:09.530 --> 0:12:13.760 places that were considered sanctuary sites, such as hospitals and 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:18.979 churches are no longer off limits. 150 years ago, They 0:12:19.020 --> 0:12:21.979 were hunting us down to kill us, and now they're 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:24.219 hunting down immigrants to deport them. 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:30.580 While I was out reporting this project, a lot happened. 0:12:31.900 --> 0:12:35.360 ICE killed people in the streets. I watched a kid 0:12:35.479 --> 0:12:39.889 in bunny ears get detained. Our government abducted the leader 0:12:39.989 --> 0:12:41.189 of Venezuela and. 0:12:41.170 --> 0:12:42.469 Started a war with Iran. 0:12:43.699 --> 0:12:48.080 Analysts kept talking about the stages of authoritarianism, and I 0:12:48.140 --> 0:12:51.579 found myself asking this question I think a lot of 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:58.059 people are asking. How is this happening? How is all 0:12:58.079 --> 0:13:06.969 this happening in the United States? The answers I kept hearing— YouTube, 0:13:05.770 --> 0:13:11.419 lonely white men, the economy— didn' t feel like enough. I started 0:13:11.459 --> 0:13:15.119 to wonder if maybe the explanation was deeper than all that, 0:13:15.780 --> 0:13:19.649 deeper than anything going on right now. I'm still trying 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.670 to figure it out, but the more time I spend 0:13:22.770 --> 0:13:27.829 in the past, the more the present makes sense. Maybe 0:13:27.900 --> 0:13:31.059 the answer is in that history we don't know how 0:13:31.099 --> 0:13:43.650 to talk about. The first place I went on my 0:13:43.729 --> 0:13:45.969 quest to put Native people back in the story of 0:13:46.050 --> 0:13:51.020 America was the Declaration of Independence. This year is the 0:13:51.209 --> 0:13:55.100 250th anniversary of the signing of that famous document. And 0:13:55.140 --> 0:13:57.900 it made sense to me as a starting place. I mean, 0:13:58.199 --> 0:14:01.020 it's the most popular origin story of our country, right? 0:14:01.939 --> 0:14:04.750 But it turns out what I thought I knew about 0:14:04.790 --> 0:14:09.010 the Declaration was wrong. Native people aren't missing. 0:14:09.770 --> 0:14:10.229 We're there. 0:14:11.469 --> 0:14:14.749 Were one of the most important lines in the document. 0:14:16.260 --> 0:14:18.360 But somehow, no one knows about it. 0:14:19.940 --> 0:14:25.200 When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary 0:14:25.260 --> 0:14:29.300 for one people to dissolve the political bands which have 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:30.700 connected them with another. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.820 A couple of summers ago, on a hot July day, 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.890 this man in a large coat and a feathered hat 0:14:37.010 --> 0:14:41.170 walked up a small set of stairs. Surrounded by Revolutionary 0:14:41.250 --> 0:14:45.390 War reenactors, bayonets, and the twin speakers of the Park 0:14:45.430 --> 0:14:50.560 Service's PA system, he began reading the Declaration of Independence. 0:14:50.660 --> 0:14:56.940 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 0:14:57.239 --> 0:15:03.420 are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator 0:15:03.479 --> 0:15:10.560 with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, 0:15:10.940 --> 0:15:13.000 and the pursuit of happiness. 0:15:13.859 --> 0:15:16.310 At the time of the document's creation, a lot of 0:15:16.350 --> 0:15:20.190 people were illiterate, and printing stuff was slow and expensive. 0:15:20.870 --> 0:15:23.510 So word spread through public readings like this one. 0:15:23.630 --> 0:15:30.090 The history of the present king of Great Britain is 0:15:30.410 --> 0:15:33.680 a history of repeated injuries and usurpations. 0:15:34.180 --> 0:15:37.360 I think of the Declaration of Independence like a breakup letter. 0:15:38.109 --> 0:15:42.300 Our founders are breaking up with George III, King of England. 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.340 And the Declaration is that part of every breakup, or 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.879 at least every bad breakup, where you tell the other 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:53.060 person everything they did wrong. If Thomas Jefferson and King 0:15:53.100 --> 0:15:55.930 George were having it out on the front lawn, Jefferson 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.650 would have his finger in George's face yelling, and another thing. 0:15:59.770 --> 0:16:03.629 For imposing taxes on us without our consent. 0:16:04.630 --> 0:16:08.690 And so the Declaration is basically this long list of complaints. 0:16:08.910 --> 0:16:11.710 He has plundered our sea. 0:16:11.910 --> 0:16:14.790 A lot of historians say that list has an order. 0:16:14.989 --> 0:16:16.489 Ravaged our coast. 0:16:16.650 --> 0:16:18.629 It starts with smaller grievances. 0:16:18.650 --> 0:16:20.310 Burnt our towns. 0:16:20.470 --> 0:16:21.970 And ends with the biggest ones. 0:16:22.350 --> 0:16:25.400 And destroyed the lives. 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:30.580 Of our people. We've been told the American Revolution was 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:35.680 fought over taxes and representation. But the last complaint, the 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.999 thing our founders were most angry about, goes like this. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:45.240 He has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, 0:16:45.900 --> 0:16:48.120 the merciless Indian savages. 0:16:49.479 --> 0:16:54.100 There's a racial slur in the Declaration of Independence. Native 0:16:54.140 --> 0:17:00.120 people are called savages. Alongside those lofty ideals, our founders 0:17:00.220 --> 0:17:03.300 included their deep hatred for indigenous people. 0:17:04.109 --> 0:17:09.109 The merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is 0:17:09.290 --> 0:17:15.390 an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes. 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:17.180 And conditions. 0:17:20.340 --> 0:17:23.140 In case you need a refresher, the popular story of 0:17:23.180 --> 0:17:28.330 the American Revolution goes like this. Britain unjustly imposed taxes 0:17:28.430 --> 0:17:30.290 on the colonists and they got mad. 0:17:31.710 --> 0:17:33.590 But every time they protested, like. 0:17:33.510 --> 0:17:36.800 When they threw tea into the Boston Harbor, the king 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:43.800 just imposed harsher laws. The colonists started to see their 0:17:43.860 --> 0:17:53.560 king as a tyrant. Some started talking about independence. Late 0:17:53.700 --> 0:17:56.900 one night, Paul Revere rode his horse to warn militias 0:17:56.980 --> 0:18:00.889 waiting outside Boston that the British were coming. The next morning, 0:18:00.910 --> 0:18:05.910 the militia squared off against the Brits and the Revolutionary 0:18:05.970 --> 0:18:06.850 War began. 0:18:06.870 --> 0:18:10.169 A year later, our. 0:18:10.530 --> 0:18:16.190 Founding fathers gathered in Philadelphia to write the Declaration of Independence. 0:18:28.090 --> 0:18:32.390 But for two and a half centuries, that document has 0:18:32.430 --> 0:18:37.920 been telling a different story. According to our founders, in 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:43.820 their own words, what they were most angry about was Indians. 0:18:45.980 --> 0:18:49.390 How did we all miss that? Can you please introduce yourself? 0:18:50.230 --> 0:18:51.250 Hi, I'm Ned Blackhawk. 0:18:52.140 --> 0:18:53.980 I went to Connecticut to find out. 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:55.940 And what's your tribal affiliation? 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:57.540 I'm Western Shoshone. 0:18:57.960 --> 0:18:58.970 And what do you do, Ned? 0:18:59.290 --> 0:19:00.110 I teach history. 0:19:01.490 --> 0:19:01.850 Where? 0:19:02.170 --> 0:19:06.129 Yale University. I was the first tenured American Indian to 0:19:06.170 --> 0:19:06.830 teach at Yale. 0:19:06.910 --> 0:19:08.270 Wait, I just kind of want to back up. Like 0:19:08.290 --> 0:19:11.130 in the entire history of Yale, you're the first Native 0:19:11.150 --> 0:19:12.740 person to get tenure here? 0:19:13.090 --> 0:19:14.500 Yes, and I'm still the first. 0:19:15.540 --> 0:19:16.200 Still the only? 0:19:16.820 --> 0:19:18.180 Tenured faculty member, yes. 0:19:19.180 --> 0:19:20.399 Is it ever lonely here? 0:19:24.550 --> 0:19:27.270 Ned wears a long ponytail and the kind of sweater 0:19:27.350 --> 0:19:30.490 you imagine a professor would wear. Ned and I have 0:19:30.510 --> 0:19:31.510 been talking about this. 0:19:31.390 --> 0:19:34.990 History for years. He, along with Nick Estes. 0:19:34.650 --> 0:19:37.649 And some other Indigenous scholars, helped shape the idea for 0:19:37.690 --> 0:19:41.250 this podcast. I wanted Ned to tell me the story 0:19:41.430 --> 0:19:45.130 of why the founders hated Indigenous people so much they 0:19:45.210 --> 0:19:49.580 put it in the Declaration of Independence. Ned says that 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.690 story starts a couple decades earlier with this big, big war. 0:19:53.900 --> 0:19:55.790 Was it kind of like World War Zero? 0:19:55.810 --> 0:19:57.870 No, it is the First World War. 0:19:58.690 --> 0:20:02.270 It started as a fight. over who would control North America, 0:20:02.290 --> 0:20:05.960 and it eventually covered the globe. Great Britain won, and 0:20:05.980 --> 0:20:08.800 they got a bunch of land from France. This land 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.919 spans from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:12.700 present-day New. 0:20:12.620 --> 0:20:13.820 York to Minnesota. 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.380 The colonists are thrilled. 0:20:16.700 --> 0:20:20.930 All across British North America, Columnists are rejoicing. Sermons are 0:20:20.950 --> 0:20:24.910 being offered and Sunday's pamphlets and almanacs are being written 0:20:24.990 --> 0:20:28.270 about land possibilities in the interior. And there's this kind 0:20:28.290 --> 0:20:34.330 of growing sense of shared kind of euphoria that the 0:20:34.350 --> 0:20:37.750 British government and the British Empire are not just the 0:20:37.850 --> 0:20:41.129 largest in world history, but also the most virtuous and 0:20:41.230 --> 0:20:42.030 or free. 0:20:42.850 --> 0:20:47.530 Those celebrations come to a halt in the summer of 1763. 0:20:47.530 --> 0:20:52.050 when news spreads of an Indigenous uprising. The land England 0:20:52.090 --> 0:20:56.140 took over from France is still controlled by Indigenous nations. 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.780 What England actually wins in the war, in real terms, 0:21:00.060 --> 0:21:03.740 is forts. About 13 forts stationed around the Great Lakes. 0:21:05.180 --> 0:21:07.740 As a new Fort Boston town, England thinks it can 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:09.260 push Native nations around. 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:12.280 They don't listen to the Native peoples. They don't trade 0:21:12.300 --> 0:21:13.100 with them adequately. 0:21:13.810 --> 0:21:18.270 And that angers indigenous leaders. An Odawa chief named Pontiac 0:21:18.390 --> 0:21:23.889 forms a multinational indigenous military alliance to push back. Rick, 0:21:23.910 --> 0:21:25.450 could you just tell me a little bit more about 0:21:25.590 --> 0:21:26.650 who Pontiac is? 0:21:27.250 --> 0:21:32.750 Pontiac is an Odawa leader, and he's fallen into close 0:21:33.350 --> 0:21:38.930 affinity with a preacher who's Delaware, or Lenape, named Neolan. 0:21:39.540 --> 0:21:42.680 Nyolan is the Delaware prophet. Pontiac is the political leader. 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:46.060 And together they start articulating a vision for the future 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:51.940 that is transformative. They decide that they no longer want 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:57.630 their followers to rely upon the goods of Europeans. 0:21:58.490 --> 0:21:58.830 And it's a. 0:21:58.850 --> 0:22:01.770 Process kind of similar to what the colonists are going through. 0:22:02.630 --> 0:22:06.690 Because once they start reimagining themselves in these ways... They 0:22:06.710 --> 0:22:09.230 decide that they're going to drive the English out. 0:22:10.970 --> 0:22:14.260 Pontiac and his soldiers go around and attack British forts. 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:19.820 One of those attacks was particularly brilliant. Some Anishinaabe warriors 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:22.640 go to this fort in northern Michigan, as they often 0:22:22.700 --> 0:22:25.980 did to trade. But while they're there, they pretend to 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:28.870 play a game of lacrosse right outside the fort. 0:22:29.470 --> 0:22:33.410 And one ball makes it over the fence. And so 0:22:33.450 --> 0:22:36.270 they ask if they could kind of get their ball returned. 0:22:36.310 --> 0:22:39.800 And so the fort officials are opening the doors to 0:22:39.850 --> 0:22:42.980 return the ball that's been taken. And a flood of 0:22:43.020 --> 0:22:44.600 warriors come in and destroy the fort. 0:22:50.460 --> 0:22:56.590 Pontiac's military alliance attacks forts all over the Great Lakes region. Remember, 0:22:56.950 --> 0:23:00.869 England took over about 13 forts, while Pontiac and his 0:23:00.930 --> 0:23:02.610 alliance destroy eight. 0:23:03.710 --> 0:23:06.510 They signal to the English that peace is going to 0:23:06.530 --> 0:23:08.170 be more costly than war has been for you. 0:23:08.970 --> 0:23:12.530 And another costly war for the crown is a big problem. 0:23:13.070 --> 0:23:18.290 England is broke, like broke, broke. That global war England 0:23:18.330 --> 0:23:22.770 spent almost a decade fighting, it was expensive. The crown 0:23:22.810 --> 0:23:24.210 doesn't want to pay for another one. 0:23:24.710 --> 0:23:27.720 And they decide, OK. We'll make peace with Pontiac. 0:23:27.780 --> 0:23:29.720 And why would the king do that? 0:23:29.740 --> 0:23:32.960 Because England is a global empire, so why wouldn't the 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:35.450 king of England want more land in North America? 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:36.970 Have you ever been to India? 0:23:37.830 --> 0:23:38.110 No. 0:23:38.290 --> 0:23:40.149 Have you heard of the Caribbean? 0:23:40.650 --> 0:23:40.970 Yes. 0:23:41.410 --> 0:23:45.990 Okay, the English crown governs millions of people around the world. 0:23:46.690 --> 0:23:49.750 The British colonists in North America are a small percentage 0:23:49.790 --> 0:23:53.110 of that. The overwhelming economic priorities that the British empire 0:23:53.150 --> 0:23:57.020 has in the Western Hemisphere... revolve around places like Jamaica 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:01.710 and Barbados, not Virginia or Massachusetts. 0:24:02.030 --> 0:24:04.390 Is that because Barbados makes the crown more money? 0:24:04.610 --> 0:24:05.070 Correct. 0:24:05.630 --> 0:24:12.200 Because Barbados produces large quantities of slave-produced alcohol and sugar 0:24:12.590 --> 0:24:14.940 that can be consumed across the British Empire. 0:24:15.820 --> 0:24:20.000 So in the interests of Britain, this global empire, peace 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:23.550 with indigenous nations makes the most sense. It saves the 0:24:23.590 --> 0:24:27.410 crown money. It serves the crown's interests. To preserve peace, 0:24:27.590 --> 0:24:31.470 the king of England gives Pontiac and his confederacy what 0:24:31.530 --> 0:24:31.990 they want. 0:24:32.670 --> 0:24:37.660 The proclamation line of October 1763 draws this perimeter along 0:24:37.740 --> 0:24:39.859 the crests of the Appalachian Mountains. 0:24:40.540 --> 0:24:43.820 The crown promises to keep settlers off their land. 0:24:44.600 --> 0:24:48.800 So everything east is British North America. Everything to the 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:50.280 west is to be reserved for the Indians. 0:24:51.270 --> 0:24:55.290 While peace with indigenous nations serves the crown's global interests, 0:24:55.890 --> 0:24:59.830 it angers the colonists because it takes from them what 0:24:59.890 --> 0:25:02.410 they want most, more land. 0:25:03.430 --> 0:25:09.110 Land mania, we might say, overwhelms the colonial system. Gentry leaders, 0:25:09.590 --> 0:25:13.000 people like George Washington, understood that their lands were becoming 0:25:13.260 --> 0:25:18.080 increasingly less valuable. People like Washington, in commanding their enslaved 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:22.500 populations to help bring nutrient-rich soils from the bottom of 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:23.360 river beds. 0:25:24.020 --> 0:25:25.220 Because the fields are so depleted. 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:26.820 Because the fields have become so depleted. 0:25:27.430 --> 0:25:30.630 People like George Washington made money from this thing called 0:25:30.730 --> 0:25:34.350 land speculation. They'd buy up land that still belonged to 0:25:34.390 --> 0:25:38.000