1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,520
Speaker 1: Rebecca Nagel. Here, Before we get into this episode, I

2
00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:05,880
Speaker 1: wanted to let you know that you can hear episodes

3
00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:09,880
Speaker 1: of First America early and ad free by signing up

4
00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:14,440
Speaker 1: for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks,

5
00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,000
Speaker 1: and other binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors.

6
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,680
Speaker 1: Find Pushkin Plus on the First America Show page on

7
00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:27,120
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fm slash plus. Let's

8
00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:27,800
Speaker 1: get into it.

9
00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:36,000
Speaker 2: Where do you want to park?

10
00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:36,280
Speaker 3: Shake?

11
00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:36,560
Speaker 4: Park?

12
00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:36,760
Speaker 5: Great?

13
00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:38,120
Speaker 6: I think you have to park in here.

14
00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:42,840
Speaker 1: The four is that way. On a cold day in January,

15
00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:47,239
Speaker 1: I visited Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. I was there with

16
00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,440
Speaker 1: my friend Nick Guestis. He's a history professor at the

17
00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,080
Speaker 1: University of Minnesota and a citizen of the Lower Bural

18
00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:56,000
Speaker 1: Sioux tribe.

19
00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:01,240
Speaker 6: This is the historic Fort Snelling. A walk closer to it.

20
00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:03,720
Speaker 1: Can you just describe what the fort looks like?

21
00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:07,920
Speaker 6: Well, the fort has a guard tower and then there's

22
00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:09,840
Speaker 6: a wall that surrounds the entire fort.

23
00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:13,679
Speaker 1: There's a series of Next to the historic buildings are

24
00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:16,319
Speaker 1: modern day trash cans. To let you know, this is

25
00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:20,160
Speaker 1: a tourist attraction. School kids come here on field trips.

26
00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:26,319
Speaker 6: This is a sacred site for Duckoaded people, which was

27
00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,480
Speaker 6: later appropriated by the US military to build their fort.

28
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:35,880
Speaker 6: So look at that bald eagle. Told you were going

29
00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:40,240
Speaker 6: to see one. Yeah, I wish the United States never

30
00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:41,399
Speaker 6: appropriated the eagle.

31
00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:42,560
Speaker 2: Do you hear?

32
00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:50,600
Speaker 6: Look at it, he's coming right towards us. I mean,

33
00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:53,640
Speaker 6: I don't know, man, I don't know how you can't

34
00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:56,680
Speaker 6: believe in the power of this stuff because those things

35
00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:01,000
Speaker 6: happen for a reason. Told you we were going to

36
00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:03,040
Speaker 6: see one.

37
00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:07,400
Speaker 1: The history of what happened at Fort Selling is significant

38
00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:11,160
Speaker 1: to the Dakota people, and that history is acknowledged at

39
00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,280
Speaker 1: the site, but you have to go and find it.

40
00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:17,760
Speaker 6: It was like a healing site right over here.

41
00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:21,720
Speaker 1: It's next to an underpass down a long set of

42
00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:28,200
Speaker 1: stairs on the edge of the woods. Any subscribe what

43
00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:29,520
Speaker 1: the memorial looks like?

44
00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:34,640
Speaker 6: Yeah, so it's a like a camp circle, but in

45
00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:38,560
Speaker 6: the center it looks like there's prayer tize, sage, tobacco,

46
00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:42,960
Speaker 6: et cetera, wrapped in cloth, and they're also prayer ties

47
00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:45,040
Speaker 6: in the trees that surround us.

48
00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:48,919
Speaker 1: Who do you think left the purer chase in the trees?

49
00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:52,720
Speaker 6: I was assuming it's the descendants of those who experienced

50
00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:54,760
Speaker 6: that genocide.

51
00:02:56,160 --> 00:03:00,040
Speaker 1: Over sixteen hundred Dakota people were held here during the

52
00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:01,600
Speaker 1: winter of eighteen sixty two.

53
00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:06,280
Speaker 6: This is the area actually where the concentration camp was

54
00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:11,800
Speaker 6: actually at Duco to people, people who dared to stand

55
00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:15,160
Speaker 6: up to the United States were put into a concentration

56
00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:20,200
Speaker 6: camp and all kinds of atrocities happened.

57
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,040
Speaker 1: The concentration camp was just one part of a broader

58
00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:28,239
Speaker 1: campaign to expel all Dakota people from the state of Minnesota.

59
00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:33,840
Speaker 1: The campaign also included death marches, massacres, bounties placed on

60
00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:38,360
Speaker 1: Indigenous heads, open air prisons, and mass executions.

61
00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:44,200
Speaker 6: There was a lot of malnutrition, purposeful starvation. There were

62
00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:50,480
Speaker 6: reports of women being raped and violated. You know, it's

63
00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:52,600
Speaker 6: a sight of horrors.

64
00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:57,360
Speaker 1: Do you think most people who come to the spot,

65
00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,280
Speaker 1: do you think that they come here to honor the

66
00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:00,600
Speaker 1: atrocity happened here.

67
00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:05,440
Speaker 6: No, they're doing winter sports recreation. I mean you can

68
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:10,120
Speaker 6: see right here. You can see these parallel tracks people

69
00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:11,920
Speaker 6: cross country ski through this area.

70
00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,200
Speaker 1: While we were standing there, some hikers walked by, Hi

71
00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:21,839
Speaker 1: walking around for its Snelling with Nick, it felt like

72
00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:27,680
Speaker 1: this perfect metaphor for our country, all our terrible history.

73
00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,680
Speaker 1: It's there. We just don't know how to talk about it.

74
00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:38,839
Speaker 1: This all started as a conversation between Nick and me

75
00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:43,039
Speaker 1: about four years ago. We were frustrated, well, I was

76
00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:46,720
Speaker 1: pissed at how Native people are erased from the story

77
00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:49,919
Speaker 1: of America. We wanted to tell the history of the

78
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:54,200
Speaker 1: United States with Native people written back in. I wanted

79
00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:55,599
Speaker 1: to correct the record.

80
00:04:57,400 --> 00:04:57,920
Speaker 5: Go up here.

81
00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:01,839
Speaker 1: Ooh oh, okay. When we were in the car, Nick's

82
00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:02,480
Speaker 1: phone rang.

83
00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:03,919
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I've called me.

84
00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:04,839
Speaker 6: Somebody got shot.

85
00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:07,320
Speaker 1: He pulled up the news on his phone.

86
00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:12,480
Speaker 6: Breaking witnesses report a woman was shot in the face

87
00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:15,480
Speaker 6: by ICE while trying to flee in central Minneapolis.

88
00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:21,480
Speaker 1: Earlier that day, a woman named Renee Nicole Good had

89
00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:24,800
Speaker 1: tried to block ICE agents with her car. An agent

90
00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:26,080
Speaker 1: had just shot and killed her.

91
00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:30,719
Speaker 6: Damn, the photos are really bad. Oh god, it looks

92
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,560
Speaker 6: like a deployed in airbag is just covered out blood.

93
00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:43,839
Speaker 1: We parked and watched the video. Wow. Wow, that's awful.

94
00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:44,760
Speaker 2: That's awful.

95
00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:50,040
Speaker 1: When I was in Minneapolis last January, thousands of ICE

96
00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:51,239
Speaker 1: agents were on the ground.

97
00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:53,160
Speaker 6: It's like a residential neighborhood.

98
00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:58,000
Speaker 1: Federal agents had been rounding people up, including children and

99
00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:02,040
Speaker 1: sending them to detention facilities. People were afraid to leave

100
00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:06,680
Speaker 1: their homes. Parents stopped sending their kids to school. It's

101
00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,000
Speaker 1: interesting given what we were talking about this morning, of

102
00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:13,080
Speaker 1: the history of the Code of people being rounded up

103
00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:20,560
Speaker 1: and violently forced out of Minnesota. When I started this project,

104
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,920
Speaker 1: I thought I was making a history podcast. I read books,

105
00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,320
Speaker 1: I interviewed historians, I went to important sites, I traveled

106
00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:32,039
Speaker 1: across the country. But then this thing kept happening. I

107
00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,960
Speaker 1: would be in a place learning about America's past, and

108
00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:40,560
Speaker 1: then the same thing would happen right here in our present.

109
00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:58,480
Speaker 1: You're listening to First America, the true story of how

110
00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:01,520
Speaker 1: the United States came to be and how our current

111
00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:04,920
Speaker 1: political moment is two hundred and fifty years in the making,

112
00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:10,040
Speaker 1: from Pushkin Industries and Critical Frequency. I'm your host, Rebecca

113
00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:15,600
Speaker 1: agele Gohein dal don Gelecayette, gain La, citizen of Cherokee Nation.

114
00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:43,600
Speaker 1: I didn't go to Minneapolis to report on Ice. I

115
00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:47,320
Speaker 1: had come to interview Nick. We just happened to be

116
00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:51,040
Speaker 1: at Fort Snelling the day Ice shot and killed Renee Good.

117
00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:56,800
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I don't believe in coincidences.

118
00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:02,080
Speaker 1: I can't sold my flight home and stayed to report

119
00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:08,480
Speaker 1: on what was happening. The next morning, there was a

120
00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:15,480
Speaker 1: protest back at Fort Snelling. I know because Fort Snelling

121
00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:19,160
Speaker 1: is also the site of ICE's headquarters in Minneapolis.

122
00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:22,360
Speaker 4: I was curious why you guys came today because, I mean,

123
00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,240
Speaker 4: you know, someone was literally killed yesterday for standing up

124
00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:25,640
Speaker 4: to ICE.

125
00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:29,400
Speaker 1: So is it scary to be here today? Knowing, yes, it's.

126
00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:33,360
Speaker 7: Scary, and I'm angry, and the anger overcomes the fear.

127
00:08:33,920 --> 00:08:35,319
Speaker 1: I have a good friend.

128
00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:38,760
Speaker 7: And she lived in Denmark during the German occupation, and

129
00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:41,320
Speaker 7: she has told me over and over again, you could

130
00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:45,560
Speaker 7: not be quiet. You must end up, because silence is

131
00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:47,920
Speaker 7: what allowed this to happen in the Second World War.

132
00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:54,360
Speaker 1: How far are we from the historic Fort Snelling.

133
00:08:54,679 --> 00:08:58,480
Speaker 8: I'm just right across Highway sixty two here, And do

134
00:08:58,520 --> 00:08:58,800
Speaker 8: you know.

135
00:08:58,800 --> 00:08:59,680
Speaker 6: What happened there?

136
00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:03,480
Speaker 5: Oh no, no, don't ask you those kinds of questions.

137
00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:11,000
Speaker 5: I'm not good with history. It's a historic fort, it's.

138
00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:13,960
Speaker 1: On the spot.

139
00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,040
Speaker 5: I mean, the reason this is not happening here is

140
00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:19,040
Speaker 5: because of the ICE offices that are there, not because

141
00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:20,079
Speaker 5: of the historic fort.

142
00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:24,360
Speaker 4: But the four in the eighteen sixties is actually a

143
00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:28,040
Speaker 4: concentration camp for Dakota people. Oh, I'm just curious if

144
00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:30,440
Speaker 4: any of that history feels relevant to what's happening now.

145
00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,120
Speaker 5: Yes, clearly, you know, but I mean our state. I

146
00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,160
Speaker 5: mean just yeah, I mean what I mean.

147
00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:38,880
Speaker 1: You watched that video.

148
00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,120
Speaker 5: Thank god that person was there taking the video on

149
00:09:42,160 --> 00:09:46,320
Speaker 5: their cell phone yesterday so everyone can see what happened.

150
00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:51,480
Speaker 1: You know. After leaving the protests, I went back to

151
00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:55,640
Speaker 1: see Niicustus at his office.

152
00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:00,920
Speaker 6: The murder of Renee Good and three of Fort Snelling

153
00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:05,680
Speaker 6: are actually inseparable. First of all, ICE is headquartered on

154
00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:08,280
Speaker 6: the Fort Snelling Area campus.

155
00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:11,400
Speaker 1: Do you know if that's because it's federal land.

156
00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:14,120
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's headquartered there because it's federal land.

157
00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:15,920
Speaker 1: And why is it federal land.

158
00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:19,000
Speaker 6: It's federal land because it was once a military reservation

159
00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:23,640
Speaker 6: from the Zebulent Pike Treaty of eighteen o five. And

160
00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:27,040
Speaker 6: that was a treaty signed between some Dakota leaders and

161
00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:30,079
Speaker 6: the United States government to create a military outpost.

162
00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:35,680
Speaker 1: It's not just the same place. The same thing is happening.

163
00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:39,320
Speaker 6: People are being hunted in their neighborhoods and their schools.

164
00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:43,560
Speaker 6: Places that were considered sanctuary sites, such as hospitals and

165
00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:47,440
Speaker 6: churches are no longer off limits. One hundred and fifty

166
00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:50,320
Speaker 6: years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us,

167
00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:56,400
Speaker 6: and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them.

168
00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:00,440
Speaker 1: While I was out reporting this project, a lot happened.

169
00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:05,240
Speaker 1: Ice killed people in the streets. I watched a kid

170
00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:09,720
Speaker 1: in bunny ears get detained. Our government abducted the leader

171
00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:14,360
Speaker 1: of Venezuela and started a war with Iran. Analysts kept

172
00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:18,680
Speaker 1: talking about the stages of authoritarianism, and I found myself

173
00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:22,440
Speaker 1: asking this question. I think a lot of people are asking,

174
00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:29,960
Speaker 1: how is this happening? How is all this happening in

175
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:35,960
Speaker 1: the United States. The answers I kept hearing YouTube lonely

176
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:41,319
Speaker 1: white men, the economy didn't feel like enough. I started

177
00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:44,800
Speaker 1: to wonder if maybe the explanation was deeper than all that,

178
00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:49,520
Speaker 1: deeper than anything going on right now. I'm still trying

179
00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:52,439
Speaker 1: to figure it out. But the more time I spend

180
00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:57,680
Speaker 1: in the past, the more the present makes sense. Maybe

181
00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:00,920
Speaker 1: the answer is in that history we don't know how

182
00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:13,480
Speaker 1: to talk about. The first place I went on my

183
00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:15,840
Speaker 1: quest to put Native people back in the story of

184
00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:20,440
Speaker 1: America was the Declaration of Independence. This year is the

185
00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:23,160
Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of that

186
00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:26,040
Speaker 1: famous document, and it made sense to me as a

187
00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:29,640
Speaker 1: starting place. I mean, it's the most popular origin story

188
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:33,280
Speaker 1: of our country, right, But it turns out what I

189
00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:37,959
Speaker 1: thought I knew about the Declaration was wrong. Native people

190
00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:43,240
Speaker 1: aren't missing, We're there. We're one of the most important

191
00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:48,240
Speaker 1: lines in the document, but somehow no one knows about it.

192
00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:55,040
Speaker 8: When in the courts of human events it becomes necessary

193
00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:59,080
Speaker 8: for one people to dissolve the political bands which have

194
00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:01,120
Speaker 8: connected them with A.

195
00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,160
Speaker 1: Couple of summers ago, on a hot July day, this

196
00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:07,120
Speaker 1: man in a large coat and a feathered hat walked

197
00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:11,360
Speaker 1: up a small set of stairs, surrounded by Revolutionary War

198
00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:15,199
Speaker 1: re enactors, Bayonets and the twins speakers of the Park

199
00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:20,400
Speaker 1: Services PA system. He began reading the Declaration of Independence.

200
00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:26,080
Speaker 3: We hold these truths to be self evident, that all

201
00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:32,200
Speaker 3: men are created equal, that they are in down by

202
00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:40,120
Speaker 3: their creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,

203
00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:42,880
Speaker 3: and the pursuit of happiness.

204
00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:46,160
Speaker 1: At the time of the document's creation, a lot of

205
00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:50,760
Speaker 1: people were illiterate. Imprinting stuff was slow and expensive, so

206
00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,440
Speaker 1: word spread through public readings like this one.

207
00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:59,719
Speaker 8: The history of the present King of Great Britain is

208
00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:03,520
Speaker 8: a history of repeated injuries.

209
00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:03,840
Speaker 6: And us of pain.

210
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,280
Speaker 1: I think of the Declaration of Independence like a breakup letter.

211
00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:11,600
Speaker 1: Our founders are breaking up with George, the third King

212
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,040
Speaker 1: of England, and the declaration is a part of every breakup,

213
00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:18,480
Speaker 1: or at least every bad breakup, where you tell the

214
00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:22,600
Speaker 1: other person everything they did wrong. If Thomas Jefferson and

215
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:24,880
Speaker 1: King George were having it out on the front lawn,

216
00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:28,600
Speaker 1: Jefferson would have his finger in George's face yelling, and

217
00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:29,680
Speaker 1: another thing.

218
00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:33,400
Speaker 3: For imposing taxes on us without our consent.

219
00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:38,040
Speaker 1: And so the Declaration is basically this long list of

220
00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:39,440
Speaker 1: complaints he.

221
00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:41,440
Speaker 3: Has plundered our scene.

222
00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,360
Speaker 1: A lot of historians say that list has an.

223
00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:46,320
Speaker 6: Order, rabbits our coasts.

224
00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:50,840
Speaker 1: It starts with smaller grievances or our tell and ends

225
00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:52,200
Speaker 1: with the biggest ones.

226
00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:55,960
Speaker 9: And destroying the lives of our people.

227
00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:01,840
Speaker 1: We've been told the American Revolution was fought over taxes

228
00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:06,800
Speaker 1: and representation. But the last complaint, the thing our founders

229
00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:09,800
Speaker 1: were most angry about, goes like this.

230
00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:15,040
Speaker 9: He has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,

231
00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:18,600
Speaker 9: the marciless Indian savages.

232
00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:23,960
Speaker 1: There's a racial slur in the Declaration of Independence. Native

233
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:30,000
Speaker 1: people are called savages. Alongside those lofty ideals, our founders

234
00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,520
Speaker 1: included their deep hatred for Indigenous people.

235
00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:39,360
Speaker 9: The marciless Indian savages, whose noble of warfare is an

236
00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:47,040
Speaker 9: undistinguished dystruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

237
00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:52,960
Speaker 1: In case you need a refresher, the popular story of

238
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:58,200
Speaker 1: the American Revolution goes like this. Britain unjustly imposed taxes

239
00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:01,920
Speaker 1: on the colonists, and they got mad at But every

240
00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:04,760
Speaker 1: time they protested, like when they threw tea into the

241
00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:12,880
Speaker 1: Boston Harbor, the king just imposed harsher laws. The colonists

242
00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:18,920
Speaker 1: started to see their king as a tyrant. Some started

243
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:24,880
Speaker 1: talking about independence continental conference. Late one night, Paul Revere

244
00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,200
Speaker 1: rode his horse to warn militias waiting outside Boston that

245
00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:32,000
Speaker 1: the British were coming. The next morning, the militia squared

246
00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:39,000
Speaker 1: off against the Brits, and the Revolutionary War began. Independence

247
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:43,360
Speaker 1: A year later, our founding fathers gathered in Philadelphia to

248
00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:58,680
Speaker 1: write the Declaration of Independence. But for two and a

249
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:04,680
Speaker 1: half centuries that document has been telling a different story.

250
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:10,520
Speaker 1: According to our founders, in their own words, what they

251
00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:16,600
Speaker 1: were most angry about was Indians. How did we all

252
00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:19,360
Speaker 1: miss that? Can you please introduce yourself?

253
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:21,200
Speaker 6: Hi, I'm Ned Blackhawk.

254
00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:24,800
Speaker 1: I went to Connecticut to find out And what's your

255
00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:25,679
Speaker 1: tribal affiliation?

256
00:17:26,280 --> 00:17:28,560
Speaker 2: I'm Western Shoshoni. And what do you do?

257
00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:28,920
Speaker 5: Ned?

258
00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:34,320
Speaker 2: I teach history where Yo University. I was the first

259
00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:36,879
Speaker 2: tenured American Indian to teach at EO wait.

260
00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:38,240
Speaker 1: I just kind of want to back up, like, in

261
00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:41,359
Speaker 1: the entire history of yil You're the first Native person

262
00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:42,560
Speaker 1: to get tenure here.

263
00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:46,960
Speaker 2: Yes, and I'm still the first, so the only tenured

264
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:48,119
Speaker 2: faculty member? Yes?

265
00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:56,240
Speaker 1: Is it ever lonely? Ned wears a long ponytail and

266
00:17:56,280 --> 00:18:00,080
Speaker 1: the kind of sweater you imagine a professor would wear one.

267
00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:03,000
Speaker 1: I have been talking about this history for years. He,

268
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:06,520
Speaker 1: along with Nick Estes and some other Indigenous scholars, helped

269
00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:10,080
Speaker 1: shape the idea for this podcast. I wanted Ned to

270
00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:13,520
Speaker 1: tell me the story of why the founders hated Indigenous

271
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:17,400
Speaker 1: people so much they put it in the Declaration of Independence.

272
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:21,919
Speaker 1: Net says that story starts a couple decades earlier with

273
00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:24,960
Speaker 1: this big, big war. Was it kind of like World

274
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:25,600
Speaker 1: War Zero?

275
00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:27,720
Speaker 2: No, it is the first World War.

276
00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:32,159
Speaker 1: It started as a fight over who would control North America,

277
00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:35,760
Speaker 1: and it eventually covered the globe. Great Britain one and

278
00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:38,640
Speaker 1: they got a bunch of land from France. This land

279
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,800
Speaker 1: spans from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from

280
00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:46,880
Speaker 1: present day New York to Minnesota. The colonists are thrilled all.

281
00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:51,000
Speaker 2: Across British North America. Columnists are rejoicing. Sermons are being

282
00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:55,119
Speaker 2: offered in Sunday's pamphlets and almanacs are being written about

283
00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:58,280
Speaker 2: land possibilities in the interior. And there's this kind of

284
00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:04,600
Speaker 2: growing sense of shared kind of euphoria that the British

285
00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:08,200
Speaker 2: government and the British Empire are not just the largest

286
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:12,119
Speaker 2: in world history, but also the most virtuous in or free.

287
00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,760
Speaker 1: Those celebrations come to a halt in the summer of

288
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,879
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty three when news spreads of an indigenous uprising.

289
00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:24,679
Speaker 1: The land England took over from France is still controlled

290
00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:28,480
Speaker 1: by indigenous nations. What England actually wins in the war

291
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:32,920
Speaker 1: in real terms, is forts. About thirteen forts stationed around

292
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:37,120
Speaker 1: the Great Lakes as a new fort Boston Town. England

293
00:19:37,119 --> 00:19:39,120
Speaker 1: thinks it can push Native nations around.

294
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,240
Speaker 2: They don't listen to the native peoples. They don't trade with.

295
00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:47,080
Speaker 1: Them adequately, and that angers indigenous leaders. An Odawa chief

296
00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:52,159
Speaker 1: named Pontiac forms a multi national Indigenous military alliance to

297
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:54,840
Speaker 1: push back. Rick, could you just tell me a little

298
00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:56,480
Speaker 1: bit more about who Pontiac is.

299
00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:02,600
Speaker 2: Pontiac is an Adawa leader, and he's fallen into close

300
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:08,800
Speaker 2: affinity with the preacher whose Delaware or Lenape named Neolan

301
00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:12,600
Speaker 2: Niolan is the Delaware prophet. Pontiac is the political leader,

302
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:15,920
Speaker 2: and together they start articulating a vision for the future

303
00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:21,880
Speaker 2: that is transformative. They decide that they no longer want

304
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:28,359
Speaker 2: their followers to rely upon the goods of Europeans. And

305
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,040
Speaker 2: it's a process kind of similar to what the colonists

306
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:35,399
Speaker 2: are going through, because once they start reimagining themselves in

307
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:38,280
Speaker 2: these ways, they decide that they're going to drive the

308
00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:39,159
Speaker 2: English out.

309
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:44,159
Speaker 1: Pontiac and the soldiers go around and attack British forts.

310
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:49,200
Speaker 1: One of those attacks was particularly brilliant. Some hones Shanabi

311
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:51,880
Speaker 1: warriors go to this fort in northern Michigan, as they

312
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:55,720
Speaker 1: often did, to trade. But while they're there, they pretend

313
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,760
Speaker 1: to play a game of lacrosse right outside.

314
00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:01,960
Speaker 2: The fort, and one ball makes it over the fence,

315
00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:05,160
Speaker 2: and so they ask if they could kind of get

316
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,679
Speaker 2: their ball returned, And so the fort officials are opening

317
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:12,199
Speaker 2: the doors to return the ball that's been taken, and

318
00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:15,119
Speaker 2: flood of warriors have come in and destroy the fort.

319
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:26,440
Speaker 1: Pontiac's military alliance attacks forts all over the Great Lakes region. Remember,

320
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:30,639
Speaker 1: England took over about thirteen forts while Pontiac and his

321
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:32,480
Speaker 1: alliance destroy eight.

322
00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:36,359
Speaker 2: They signal to the English that peace is going to

323
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:38,040
Speaker 2: be more costly than war has been for.

324
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,480
Speaker 1: You, and another costly war for the crown is a

325
00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:47,560
Speaker 1: big problem. England is broke, like Broke broke that global war.

326
00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:52,240
Speaker 1: England spent almost a decade fighting. It was expensive. The

327
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 1: Crown doesn't want to pay for another one, and.

328
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 2: They decide, okay, we'll make peace with Pontiac.

329
00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 1: And why would the king do that, because, like England

330
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:03,199
Speaker 1: does a global empire, So why wouldn't the King of

331
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,400
Speaker 1: England want more land in North Okay?

332
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,600
Speaker 2: Have you ever been to India? No? Have you heard

333
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:09,960
Speaker 2: of the Caribbean?

334
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:10,879
Speaker 1: Yes?

335
00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:15,879
Speaker 2: Okay. The English crown governs millions of people around the world.

336
00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:19,680
Speaker 2: The British colonists in North America are a smallhole percentage

337
00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 2: of that. The overwhelming economic priorities that the British Empire

338
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 2: has in the Western Hemisphere revolve around places like Jamaica

339
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:31,720
Speaker 2: and Barbados, not Virginia or Massachusetts.

340
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:34,359
Speaker 1: Is that because Barbados makes the Crown more money?

341
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:41,480
Speaker 2: Correct, because Barbados produces large quantities of slave produced alcohol

342
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:45,000
Speaker 2: and sugar that can be consumed across the British Empire.

343
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: So in the interests of Britain this global empire, peace

344
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,439
Speaker 1: with indigenous nations makes the most sense. It saves the

345
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,280
Speaker 1: Crown money. It serves the Crown's interests to preserve peace.

346
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,320
Speaker 1: The King of England gives Pontiac and his confederacy what

347
00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: they want.

348
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,720
Speaker 2: The Proclamation Line of October seventeen sixty three draws this

349
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 2: perimeter along the crests of the Appalachian Mountains.

350
00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:14,199
Speaker 1: The Crown promises to keep settlers off their land.

351
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 2: So everything east is British North America. Everything to the

352
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 2: west is to be reserved for the Indians.

353
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:25,240
Speaker 1: While peace with indigenous nations serves the Crown's global interests,

354
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:29,680
Speaker 1: it angers the colonists because it takes from them what

355
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 1: they want most.

356
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 2: More land land Mania, we might say, overwhelms the colonial system.

357
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:42,359
Speaker 2: Gentry leaders, people like George Washington understood that their lands

358
00:23:42,359 --> 00:23:47,080
Speaker 2: were becoming increasingly less valuable, people like Washington and commanding

359
00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 2: their enslaved populations to help bring nutrient rich soils from

360
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:54,879
Speaker 2: the bottom of river beds because the fields are so

361
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,240
Speaker 2: because the fields have become so depleted.

362
00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:00,480
Speaker 1: People like George Washington made money from this thing called

363
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:04,159
Speaker 1: land speculation. They buy up land that still belonged to

364
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: indigenous nations to sell for profit. Once Indigenous people were

365
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,200
Speaker 1: pushed out the King's new boundary, it messed up their

366
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,480
Speaker 1: whole scheme. The boundary line angered regular and poor people too.

367
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,879
Speaker 1: People who couldn't afford to buy private property often squatted

368
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 1: on Indigenous land, pioneers, frontiersmen, settlers, whatever you want to

369
00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:28,600
Speaker 1: call them. We're already living west of the King's line.

370
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:31,440
Speaker 2: And there are numbers of settlers who are forced back

371
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 2: east and they don't like it.

372
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,200
Speaker 1: And there's this other thing about the King's concession to Pontiac.

373
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 1: The colonists don't like peace. You have to understand that

374
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:45,639
Speaker 1: the colonists have been at war with Indigenous nations for

375
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,439
Speaker 1: most of their lives, and now the King wants to

376
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: make peace with their enemies.

377
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,359
Speaker 2: In fact, the British are going to give them ammunition.

378
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 2: They're going to trade with them, They're going to recognize them. Hey,

379
00:24:57,160 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 2: wait a minute, didn't we just fight with you to

380
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:00,639
Speaker 2: control this world.

381
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:05,120
Speaker 1: To help cement peace with Pontiac, England arranges to bring

382
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 1: gifts and supplies. This was how diplomacy between indigenous nations

383
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:11,640
Speaker 1: and European powers worked back then.

384
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 2: Eighty supply mule trainings are coming. Massive actually logistical undertaking

385
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,159
Speaker 2: if you think about it. At Pittsburgh, awaits these traders

386
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 2: who are going to take these goods to Pontiac's confederate.

387
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 1: The colonists organize a militia basically a band of angry

388
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 1: white men with guns, and attack the convoy.

389
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 2: The first shots of the American Revolution are fired in

390
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 2: March of seventeen sixty five, when one of these back

391
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 2: country militia groups known as the Black Boys, attacks a

392
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:43,399
Speaker 2: British force escorting trade goods to Pontiac.

393
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 1: They're not attacking Indigenous people. The Black Boys are attacking

394
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:50,440
Speaker 1: British troops.

395
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 2: They say things like we are willing to die to

396
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 2: disrupt and destroy these relationships.

397
00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:01,440
Speaker 1: So before the colonists are willing to die, lofty ideals

398
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:06,159
Speaker 1: like freedom and liberty and independence, they are willing to

399
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 1: die to stop the Crown from making peace with Indigenous nations.

400
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,280
Speaker 1: And we know why they are willing to die for

401
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:16,919
Speaker 1: this cause because they wrote a song about it.

402
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 2: The Black Boys create an anthem, and that anthem calls

403
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:25,640
Speaker 2: Native peoples the enemies of mankind.

404
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: I asked Ned to read part of it for me.

405
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 2: In March the fifth and sixty five, their Indian presence

406
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 2: did arrive. But when this property is designed to serve

407
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 2: the enemy of mankind, it's high treason in the amount.

408
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 2: What does that line mean. It means that the British

409
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 2: trading policies of supplying Native peoples are supporting the enemies

410
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,439
Speaker 2: of not just Southern society, but mankind. More broadly, the

411
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,919
Speaker 2: Briton is committing treason not to the Crown, but to

412
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:06,880
Speaker 2: humanity as a whole. And so this vision of life, liberty,

413
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:11,640
Speaker 2: and the pursuit of happiness for mankind, the first time

414
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,040
Speaker 2: mankind is being articulated that I'm aware of, is in

415
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 2: deeply anti indigenous settings.

416
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: Hating indigenous people, seeing us as less than human helps

417
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: the colonists come together and form a unified identity. It

418
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:32,879
Speaker 1: helped them come together to fight for independence.

419
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 2: I do believe the start of the fall of the

420
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 2: British Empire North America began on the Pennsylvania frontier. The

421
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 2: sense of lawlessness, or essentially fashioning one's own self governing

422
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:52,680
Speaker 2: principles and practices. This is happening before in Pennsylvania, before

423
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:54,399
Speaker 2: it's happening in Massachusetts.

424
00:27:55,960 --> 00:28:00,080
Speaker 1: We teach the origins of the American Revolution as this

425
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,920
Speaker 1: drumbeat of violence and protests happening in Boston over taxes,

426
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 1: But years before any of that, colonists are firing guns

427
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 1: at British troops over Native land.

428
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:18,120
Speaker 2: And to my knowledge, that black Boy's history that we've

429
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 2: been discussing has yet to appear in any US history textbook.

430
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 2: Why we can't tell that story is.

431
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 6: A mystery to me.

432
00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:30,359
Speaker 1: Before I left Yale, I gave ned a present.

433
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:32,199
Speaker 6: You want me to open this?

434
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, you may or may not want it?

435
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 2: A declaration of independence? Shock class, Thank you so much.

436
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:45,640
Speaker 2: What does it say we the people?

437
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 1: What to you does that shotglass represent? If we think

438
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: about how Americans think about their history.

439
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 2: I wanted to say something that is easily diedible.

440
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 1: Goes down Smith.

441
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 2: I think we as a country are losing a real

442
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 2: sense of understanding about our nation's past. The Declaration, which

443
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 2: is full of these beautiful, beautifully rendered sentences and paragraphs

444
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:27,800
Speaker 2: about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it.

445
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 1: Why is it important for the darker part of the

446
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence in the American Revolution? Why is it

447
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 1: important that Americans know about it?

448
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 2: Well, if we don't understand the full context in which

449
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 2: our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context

450
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 2: in which our nation now finds itself.

451
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 1: I'm mad that Native people have been written out of

452
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 1: the story of the Revolution, but I'm also baffled by it.

453
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of wild, right. It's not like

454
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: you have to dig through the archives to find out

455
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: that hunger for indigenous land drove the revolution. It's right

456
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: there in the Declaration of Independence, in one of our

457
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 1: country's most famous documents, in one of the most famous

458
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:21,560
Speaker 1: documents in all of human history. But somehow no one

459
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 1: knows about it. It feels like a magic trick, like

460
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: making a rabbit disappear into a hat. And when I

461
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: started this project, that's what I thought. I was up

462
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: against the pervasive and systemic erasure of Native people from

463
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,800
Speaker 1: US history. I thought the thing people couldn't see was me,

464
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 1: my community. And then I started to realize what's missing

465
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 1: from the story of America. It's bigger than that. After

466
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 1: I left Minneapolis, I kept hearing politicians say the same thing.

467
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 2: What's happening right now in America is fundamentally on America.

468
00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 6: In there this is just so an American.

469
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 1: I understand where this comes from. It comes from the

470
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,480
Speaker 1: part of the Declaration of Independence. We were taught the

471
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: all men or created, equal life, liberty and happiness part.

472
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: But when we tell the whole story, the truth of

473
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 1: how and why our country was founded, the present moment

474
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like a contradiction. Violently rounding people up, putting

475
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:29,520
Speaker 1: people in detention, even shooting anyone who gets in the way.

476
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:36,120
Speaker 1: Our government has done this before, not once, not twice,

477
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:41,000
Speaker 1: many times. We just don't talk about that history because

478
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:45,480
Speaker 1: it happened to indigenous people. I keep hearing people go

479
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: to Nazi Germany or Putin's Russia to try and understand

480
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:54,160
Speaker 1: the rise of fascism. We don't need to leave the

481
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:59,120
Speaker 1: United States to understand the horrors of authoritarianism. It's right

482
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 1: here in our own history. And if we want to

483
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: root that authoritarianism out, we have to know where and

484
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 1: how it started. If we think we can win by

485
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 1: defeating one leader, it will be like pruning a weed.

486
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: It will only come back stronger. I thought what was

487
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,960
Speaker 1: missing from the story of America was Native people, but

488
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: then I realized without us, that story is wrong. What's

489
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:35,880
Speaker 1: missing from the story of America is the truth. I

490
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 1: want us to know how we got here, because without

491
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 1: that we will never find our way out. Coming up

492
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: on this season of First America, are you guys big

493
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: chiefs fans?

494
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 6: Hell?

495
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 8: Yeah, yes, chiefs on three walder je.

496
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 1: I feel like that's gonna happen a lot.

497
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 3: Do Native Americans still exist?

498
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:07,040
Speaker 4: Maybe?

499
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: I don't really think so.

500
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 6: The entire plan for funding the federal government was acquiring

501
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 6: indigenous land and selling it.

502
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 8: You were running for your lives and you saw behind

503
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 8: you everything you knew being burned down.

504
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:28,720
Speaker 1: What democracy rounds an entire ethnic group up at gunpoint

505
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:33,760
Speaker 1: and puts them into a concentration camp like, not a

506
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:37,680
Speaker 1: strong democracy, not a durable democracy, I would say, not

507
00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:41,680
Speaker 1: even a democracy. It's not is that a new thing.

508
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 1: This is what we've done. We're good at this. If

509
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 1: you like what you're hearing, please leave a review. It's

510
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:53,400
Speaker 1: one of the best ways to help listeners find this show.

511
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 1: You can also support First America by subscribing or sharing

512
00:33:56,400 --> 00:34:00,800
Speaker 1: episodes with your friends. First America was made possible by

513
00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: the generous support of the Henry Loose Foundation in the

514
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:08,359
Speaker 1: n Yu Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project. Additional support came

515
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 1: from Indian Collective, First Nations Development Institute, Jajavio Tom of

516
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:18,800
Speaker 1: San Manuel Nation, Borealist Philanthropy, and Black Liberation Indigenous Sovereignty Collective.

517
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:22,840
Speaker 1: Our fiscal sponsor is Red Media. I dreamed this project

518
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 1: into the world in collaboration with an amazing group of

519
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 1: Indigenous scholars, including Maggie Blackhawk, Fond de Lac Ojibwe, Ned Blackhawk,

520
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 1: citizen of the tm Ok Tribe of Western Shoshone, Phil Deloria,

521
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,120
Speaker 1: descendant of the Standing Rock and Yankton Sioux tribes, and

522
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 1: Nick Estes, citizen of the Lower Bural Sioux Tribe. I

523
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 1: Rebecca Nagel, citizen of Cherokee Nation, also reported, wrote, hosted,

524
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 1: and executive produced the show. First America is produced by

525
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:56,200
Speaker 1: Critical Frequency and distributed by Pushkin Industries. Our managing producer

526
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: is Amy Westervelt, Senior producer and sound designer is Brendan.

527
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: Our story editor is Audrey Quinn. Jules Bradley, Kim nettterv

528
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: Petersa and Jordan gas Pore are our producers. Our editorial

529
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,919
Speaker 1: consultant is Connie Walker, citizen of the Okineese First Nation.

530
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:18,720
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Naomi bar Our partnership's director is Lindsay Crowder.

531
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 1: Our development consultant is Jenny Lawton. Our theme song is

532
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:26,400
Speaker 1: by Raven Chikan, who is Diney. Scoring by Laura Ortman,

533
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 1: citizen of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, and Raven Chikon

534
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:34,760
Speaker 1: artwork by Kelly Gonzalez, citizen of Cherokee Nation. The team

535
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:39,760
Speaker 1: at Pushkin is Greta Cone CEO, Eric Sandler, Chief Strategy Officer,

536
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: Grace Ross VP of Business Development, Morgan Ratner, Director of Marketing,

537
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 1: Owen Miller Content Delivery Associate, Keira Posey Creative Partnerships Manager,

538
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:55,520
Speaker 1: Jordan McMillan Social Media Manager, Brian Strabinick Senior Analytics Manager,

539
00:35:55,680 --> 00:36:03,880
Speaker 1: and Jake Flanagan Production Council