WEBVTT - Playing Indian | Episode 2 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.520 Rebecca Nagel. Here before we get into this episode, I 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:05.880 wanted to let you know that you can hear episodes 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:09.880 of First America early and ad free by signing up 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:14.480 for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks, 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.000 and other binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.680 Find Pushkin Plus on the First America Show page on 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:27.120 Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fm slash plus. Let's 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.600 get into it. Do you remember where you were on 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:34.600 the afternoon of January sixth, twenty twenty one. I remember 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.320 where I was climbing through the window of my then 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:45.040 boyfriend's house. It was pouring down rain. He was at work, 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.640 and I had two things that really sucked to have 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:53.760 at the same time, COVID and bedbugs. I needed to 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.840 isolate somewhere while my house was treated, but my boyfriend 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.440 forgot to leave out a key, so in I went 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.920 through the window. I remember sitting down on his couch, 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:08.640 exhausted and wet, and pulling up Twitter, and there I 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.840 saw a stream of images of an angry mob storming 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:18.280 the US Capitol. Lawmakers were barricading themselves into their offices. 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.640 It wasn't clear if all of them were safe. It 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.760 was scary. It felt like maybe there wouldn't be a 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:30.040 peaceful transition of power, like our democracy was going off 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:34.840 the rails. And then I saw this image that made 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:39.679 me stop and go, wait, what the It was this 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.640 one rioter. He was bare chested, his face was covered 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:48.240 and paint. He carried a spear, and on his head 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.320 sat a fur and featherhead dress with horns. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:53.800 He was among the first to break into the building 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:57.600 and headed for the US Senate Chamber, where he sat 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.600 in the presiding Officer's chair that was vacation by Vice 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.040 President Mike Pence and scribbled this note, It's only a 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.000 matter of time. Justice is coming. 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.680 It was the QAnon Chaman. I remember how much people 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.440 talked about him the days after January sixth. People found 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:20.000 him funny and strange, but also confusing. Why would a 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.840 white guy storming the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.959 the twenty twenty election dress up like a Native American. 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.160 The answer to that question actually explains how the whole 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:40.840 thing happened in the first place. You're listening to First America, 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.880 the true story of how the United States came to 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.320 be and how our current political moment is two hundred 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.960 and fifty years in the making from Pushkin Industries and 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.960 Critical Frequency. I'm your host, Rebecca n Agle Goheen dal 0:02:55.080 --> 0:03:05.080 Dan Jeleca Yedlie gay La, citizen of Cherokee Nation. A 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.640 lot of people felt confused by the Qann Shaman's outfit. 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:13.720 You know how I felt tired. Whether it's sports mascots 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.240 or Coachella or Halloween, I see white people dress up 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.760 like natives all the time. It's exhausting to see this 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.680 racist character of your culture constantly reflected back to you. 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.400 But it's also defeating that despite all the advocacy Native 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:33.600 people have done, it keeps happening. And I wanted to 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:40.480 know why, Why do Americans keep doing this? And so 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.240 I went back in history to try and find where 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:48.400 it all started. In the beginning was a lot earlier 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.320 than I would have guessed. Last episode, we talked about 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.880 how the American Revolution started in Pennsylvania over Native land, 0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:01.000 not in Boston over taxas well. For this episode, we 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:06.360 are going to Boston and we are covering the most 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:11.080 famous event leading up to the Revolution, the Boston Tea Party. 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.240 You've probably heard of the Boston Tea Party, but there's 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.799 a part of the story I bet you haven't heard, 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:21.160 and that's the native part. Earlier this year, I visited 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.600 the Boston Tea Party, Ships and Museum with my producer Keim. 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.960 Through the magic of historical tourism and reenactments, I was 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.480 able to travel back to the year of the Boston 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.320 Tea Party seventeen seventy three. And I met someone who's 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:39.400 going to help us tell the story, well, someone pretending 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:40.680 to be someone. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.480 So my name is Archibald McNeil. I'm a rope maker 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:45.360 here in Boston. 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:47.880 His real name is Jeff. He works at the museum 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:48.799 as a tour guide. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.200 Now I've been living in Boston my whole life. 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:53.799 Will you tell us what you're wearing. 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.320 I love getting to talk about my outfit. So I'm 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.960 wearing my striped green and white trousers, my trusty boots, 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.279 and then I'm wearing my linen shirt, and then I 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.279 have my short jacket here which is made of wool. 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.000 It is quite cold. And then I have right now 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:07.839 on a linen cap. 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.240 In his little outfit, he kind of reminded me of 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.000 a newsboy, but I know the time period is off. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:15.960 As a tour guide, Jeff seemed really earnest. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.880 I might not look like I have much money, but 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.240 my family does own land here in Boston. 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.880 At the museum, he tells the story of the Boston 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.920 Tea Party. See if you can catch the native part. 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.960 It starts in seventeen seventy three, when Boston is boiling 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:32.600 with anger. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.520 Bostonians have been at the forefront of fighting back against 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:38.800 Tymannical taxes and oppression. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.080 They're mad at George, the third King of England. George 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.120 has started imposing taxes on the colonies to pay for 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.919 that huge World war we talked about last episode, and 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.760 when the colonists protested in Boston, George Ison and troops. 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:58.279 I've witnessed the protests, and some of us even considered 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.000 an invasion by British forces in our own town. 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.120 When a crowd of colonists through snowballs and ice at 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.160 British soldiers, the soldiers fired into the crowd. 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:11.520 Five men were gunned down outside the State House. I 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.920 was there and watched some of my dear friends get killed. 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.320 This was the Boston massacre. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.640 March fifth of seventeen seventy three. 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.840 Years later, the British Parliament passes a law called the 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.440 Tea Act. It gives us one British company a monopoly 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:32.080 over all tea ship to the Americas. That insult to injury. 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.080 The tea it wants to send is bad, it's old, 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:41.360 it's moldy. And then there's the tax. For every pound 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.479 of moldy tea. The colonists have to pay a three 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:49.400 pence import tax. Three ships of moldy monopoly tea are 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:50.880 docked in the Boston Harbor. 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.920 We cannot send the tea back. The moment that tea 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.120 is offloaded, the taxes have to be paid, and we 0:06:58.240 --> 0:06:59.360 know what has to be done. 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.960 They decide to throw the tea into the harbor. 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.200 And so December sixteenth, in the middle of a snowstorm, 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.680 it's quite cold, About one hundred and fifty of us 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.200 storm down to Griffin's Wharf. We board the ships. There 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:16.760 are thousands on the shoreline watching us. Now some more. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.560 And here's where I want you to pay attention to 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.480 what Archibald and his fellow colonists were wearing. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:27.720 We cover ourselves in cloaks, coats, blankets, anything to disguise 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:33.320 our figures. Some folks might smear some lamp light soots 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.600 on their faces, this is going to be trees. And 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.080 after all, when we throw this tea into the harbor, 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:40.800 we want to make sure that none of us are recognizable. 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.160 There's an important detail missing, but we'll come back to that. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:51.960 The only thing you can really hear is the breaking 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.360 of the chests and the splashing on the water. The 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.040 heaviest of these chests are weigh about four hundred pounds. 0:07:58.320 --> 0:07:59.040 It's a lot of. 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.600 Tea to get all the way up above board. It's 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:03.840 packed in so tightly, and so we're having to hit 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.240 it and scrape it with our axes, boots, anything that 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.480 we can to get it loose. And it takes us 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:11.679 about three and a half hours to destroy ninety two thousand, 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:16.280 six hundred and sixteen pounds of tea. It's about ten 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:21.000 thousand pounds of British sterling worth of tea, which I believe, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:25.160 in your day is approximately one point five million dollars 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.280 worth of property damage. 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.040 We had to cut our interview with Jeff the actor 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.760 short because it was time for him to start another tour. 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.839 Fortunately, I do have to give my office back here. 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:38.720 I should get a photo of you too. 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:40.640 He's actually about to ring the bell. 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:48.080 Of course, I appreciate it. Of course, as a tour guide, 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:52.440 Archibald takes visitors through the museum and it is an experience. 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.439 I went on a replica ship, drank actual tea paintings, 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:57.880 came to life and yelled at me. 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:00.000 The Supreme comes to. 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:06.240 That part was a little Harry Potter ask on the tour. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:08.920 I was watching out for how the museum tells the 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.440 native part of the Boston Tea Party, and it was there. 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.839 Sure in the museum. There's a cartoon on the wall 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.559 and a book and a glass case near the entrance. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.280 There's actually a big sign about it. Museum staff pointed 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:23.000 it out to us. 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.319 We wanted to make sure that this message was communicated 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:27.200 to all of our guests. 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:29.439 I can also imagine though, kind of walking past. 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:32.280 It, you can yep, yeap people aren o'blivia sometimes, you know. 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.719 My sense was that unless you were really looking, the 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.640 native part was easy to mess Would you mind saying 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:40.560 your name where you're from? 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:42.959 So your my name is Jenny, I'm from Dublin in Irelands. 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.400 I wanted to test my hypothesis, and so as people 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:48.760 left the museum, I stopped them outside. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.040 This is gonna sound like the weirdest question you've ever 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.640 been asked. But from going through the museum, did you pick. 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.640 Up on, like what the rioters were wearing when they 0:09:57.640 --> 0:09:58.440 stormed the ships? 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:00.440 I think I have a picture my head. 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:01.680 What's a picture in your head? 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.120 I don't know, like leather boots and sort of like 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.480 loose pants like britshes and maybe loose shirts. Maybe I'm 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.760 confusing with Shakespeare, but you know, like waistcoats and hats. 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.040 Mel Gibson and The Patriot is kind of my reference here. 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.480 So as the actual Boston tea party, they dressed up 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:20.360 like native people. 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.360 Oh oh, I don't know that at all. It's really interesting. 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:27.559 I talked to about a dozen people as they left 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:32.920 the museum, I homeschooled kids, tourists from Germany and Florida, 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:35.800 and none of them picked up on the fact that 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:42.280 the rioters were wearing Indian costumes. No, but I find 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:48.520 it fascinating why in the world would eighteenth century colonial 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:58.320 riders dress up like Indians? To try and understand why 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.520 the heck colonists dressed up like native people to throw 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.160 tea in the Boston Harbor, I met up with a 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:14.360 historian from Harvard. This is Phil Delora. He is a 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.319 descendant of the Standing Rock and Yankton Sioux tribes. 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:18.760 Where are we standing, Phil? 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.320 We're in front of the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.040 The fifes in the drum music is playing. 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:25.800 What's fife? 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:27.360 Oh, it's a little flute. 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:29.160 What's that building called? 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:34.439 That's called the Old atm Classic American tourist infrastructure. 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.720 Phil wanted in on the fund and so we boarded 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.600 a ship it's part of the museum and docked in 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:41.160 the real Boston Harbor. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.160 I love this stuff. It's super cool, right. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.640 It's full of ropes and riggings, and it's surprisingly small 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:49.760 for a ship that's going to be sailing on the 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:50.440 open ocean. 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.040 I mean to me, I would be scared to be 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:52.760 on this ship. 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.880 Frankly, Can I throw a box of tea over fantastic? 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.880 Standing here holding this this creative tea or a replica 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:02.640 of a creative tea? 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:03.800 Here we go. 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.760 Listen for the splash. All right? 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:12.000 I feel very American right now. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.600 If you can put yourself in the shoes of you know, 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.280 a young lad who's throwing the tea overboard. What do 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.280 you think is going through his mind? 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.480 Oh? I think he's having so much fun. It's dark, 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.920 you're in disguise, you're with your friends. The ways that 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.360 like when we jump outside of civil order, you know, 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:31.920 it can be incredibly liberating. 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.439 Bill wrote about all this for a book called Plain Indian. 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.679 In it, he says that the American tradition of white 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.559 people dressing up like Indians, it starts with the Boston 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:44.880 tea party. 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.520 They were wearing something that they thought of as Indian costume, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:48.959 more or less right. 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:50.320 But what does that mean? 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:55.239 You know, some lamp black on their faces. 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.800 Which is basically sut to darken their skin. 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:01.040 Maybe a feather or two, some blankets, blankets, even at 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.880 this moment associated with Native people, they actually attached a 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.920 tribal name to this. They call themselves Mohawks. 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.320 The way this story gets told a lot is that 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.520 the Rioters dressed up like mohawks for disguise, the way 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.559 a burglar would wear a mask. After all, they were 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:21.640 committing a crime. Phil and other historians think that's wrong. 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.240 It's pretty clear that if you knew Boston street politics, 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.640 the identities of most of these people are not really secret. 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:33.440 Phil says, the Rioters weren't wearing a disguise. They were 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.000 wearing a costume. 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.640 You know, Boston is Boston, the tea is the tea, 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.280 and to sort of call it a party, the costumes 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:43.120 make that possible. 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.640 That's what's strange about the Boston Tea Party. I mean 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:53.560 it's part protest, part riot, but large part party. To 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:58.360 understand why eighteen century rioters would want to wear a costume, 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.120 Phil says, we have to go back to medieval Europe 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:04.800 and to this thing called misrule. 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.160 Misrule itself is about inverting the social order. So you 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.880 can go to old church festivals and find the bishop 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.679 suddenly becomes mounted backwards on a donkey and drag through 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.960 the church. Horrendous, right, you know, sacrilege. 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.120 At this time for peasants, laws are really harsh. For 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.840 poaching a deer from the king's forests, the punishment was death, 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.080 so they'd find ways to push back, like ganging up 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:30.720 on a sheriff. 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.720 Sometimes you can think of these as little baby riots, right, 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:38.400 little baby riots that have a kind of a traditional 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:39.920 folk character to them. 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.600 To add fun to their civil disobedience, they'd wear a 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:44.680 costume while they did it. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.880 You know, when they were exercising these rituals and misrule, 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.200 they would men would put on women's dresses. 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.200 Banging pots and pans in the street, riding someone out 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:56.760 on a rail, even tarring and feathering. All these things 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.000 go back to medieval Europe. 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:00.920 And they make their way to the New World. 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.840 So by the time we get to the Boston tea party, 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.400 having a little baby riot to protest the King's unjust 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.960 tax is not new. Even putting on a costume for 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:15.360 your baby riot is not new. What changes is the costume, 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.520 Phil says. Colonists decide we. 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:21.240 Don't want to dress up like women, you know, in 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:22.640 the way that they used to do it back in 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.320 the old country. But we need to dress up. We 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.880 want to do something. And here's this Indian costume, and 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:30.200 it does all the right stuff. 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.720 And that costume of the Indian it starts to mean 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.880 something to the colonists, and that meaning is connected to 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.720 the land. You have to remember in England it's illegal 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.560 to hunt in the King's forest, it's illegal to collect wood. 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.760 To suddenly landing in New England finding that yes I 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:52.360 can go out and hunt deer. If I want to 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:54.320 have a big fire and stay warm, I can do that. 0:15:54.840 --> 0:16:00.360 So North America, in this very practical material way comes 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.360 a land of freedom and opportunity. 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.640 And Indian people Native people end up I think being 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.360 kind of exemplars of that. It's like, well, what's the 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.160 symbol of this freedom right that we're claiming for ourselves. 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:14.040 It's those Native people. 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:19.280 Were Native people seen as more free than Europeans at 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:19.760 the time. 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.280 Yes, if we're in purit to New England, this is 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.240 not a particularly free kind of society. So there's a 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:28.720 lot of condemnation. You have to wear a scarlet a 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.320 if you're an adult, right, I mean, so if you're 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.760 looking out at Native people, you might actually be envious, 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.760 you might actually be desirous of that kind of status. 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:42.840 So freedom this thing that is the cornerstone of American identity. 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.080 When early Americans were trying to figure that freedom out, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:50.480 Indians represented it. And it wasn't just in costumes. The 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.160 founding generation put the figure of a native person in paintings, 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:59.160 on political pamphlets, the figureheads of ships on guns. Eighteenth 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.480 century white dudes had weird societies where they gave themselves 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:07.320 Indian names and performed made up rituals. They were obsessed 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.360 and one of the places this Indian symbol shows up 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:15.159 is political cartoons Phil brought want to show me. 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:17.160 It's called the Female Combatants. 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.879 In the cartoon, England is represented by the figure of 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.960 a white woman. She's wearing this long flowing robe. 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.199 The very ornate sort of hair style, and she's like 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.800 literally holding out her fists as if she's boxing. 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.480 Who is she boxing, of course, but the colonies in 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:38.200 North America, and in the cartoon, the colonies are represented 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:39.280 by a native woman. 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:41.600 There are feathers coming out of her hair. There's a 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.920 kind of breechcloth thing no top, so her breasts are exposed, 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:50.120 and she's reaching out to punch Britannia in the face, right, 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.320 and Britannia is saying, I'll force you to obedience, you 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:55.800 rebellious slut. 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.160 Does the native woman in the picture does she represent 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.520 Native people or does she represent white people? 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:05.800 She absolutely is not representing Native people. She's absolutely representing 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:07.879 American colonists who are rebellious. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.119 Okay, So in this cartoon, they're not Indigenous people, have 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.000 nothing to do with the political struggle. It's just a 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:18.240 stand in for the white colonists exactly. 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:19.080 It's a symbol. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:20.600 It's kind of weird. 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:22.119 It's very weird. 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:23.560 It's very weird. 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.200 At the time of the Revolution, colonists needed a national 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.040 identity and they were in an awkward place. They were 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:37.359 not English anymore, but they're not American yet. Phil says plain, 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.840 Indian is the bridge that gets them to American. 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:46.640 Looking at England, you are rebelling literally against the monarch. 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.399 And what do you say, I'm not that, I'm not 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.600 that dominating kind of thing. No, no, no, I'm back over here. 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.840 I'm Aboriginal. I'm of this land, this land of freedom 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.800 and liberty and abundance. I've been made a new person. 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.680 Those lofty Enlightenment ideals we all know from the Declaration 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.720 of Independence. They're great and all, but revolutions and regular 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:15.120 people need symbols. They need something tangible that represents those 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:20.879 big ideas. And for the founding generation, that symbol was Indians. 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.960 Do the colonists need to take on native identity to 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:25.960 become American? 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:29.800 They do, but they can't fully take it on right 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.400 because they also are repulsed by it. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:33.000 Right. 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:35.720 And I think it's this sort of dynamic of sort 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:40.000 of desire for something about being native or Aboriginal to 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:44.120 this place and repulsion right of thinking these are savages. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.000 We want to have nothing to do with them. 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.280 And so the way early Americans played Indian had this 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:54.200 big contradiction baked into it. They despised actual Native people. 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.680 We were the merciless Indian savages of the Declaration of Independence, 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:05.639 Indians of their imagination. They loved those Indians. Those Indians 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.320 had all this freedom and all this land the colonists 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:18.359 wanted for themselves. After Phil and I both took the 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.399 tour of the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, I 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:22.359 told him what I thought. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.920 To me, the museum feels like this metaphor of how 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:29.760 Native history has talked about, where it's kind of hiding 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:32.560 in plane site, like you know what to look for, 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.200 you can find it, but also if you're not looking 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.400 for it, it's really easy to miss. 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:40.320 Yeah. 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.000 I think hiding in plain site's a good way to 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:42.639 think about it. 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.639 I asked the museum's creative manager, Evan O'Brien, what he 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.920 thinks about all this. Why don't they emphasize the mohawk 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:52.040 costume part more? 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:52.880 Yeah? 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:58.040 Sure, So in all regards we want to balance, well, 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.560 actually we want to strive for balance and both areas. 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:02.840 We want to be as authentic as possible and The 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.280 complexity with the Tea Party is in order to be 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.840 fully authentic, you cannot ignore the indigenous disguises that we're involved. 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.879 You simply can't. However, we also want to be sensitive 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.679 and not make any offense. History is complex. We can 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:18.760 learn from it, but we also don't want to repeat 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:19.639 the same mistakes. 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.200 And so do you guys think it would be racist 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.639 basically to have white folks today dress up like natives 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:28.760 in your programming? 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.000 Yeah, I mean we don't allow that. We don't do 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:33.240 that in any capacity. 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.800 Evan has seen volunteers show up to their reenactments dressed 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:38.960 in native costume. 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:41.080 When we first did it in twenty twelve, there were 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.360 a few gentlemen that showed up with fringe and all 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:46.520 kinds of stuff, and we had to say, gentlemen, we'd 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:48.600 love to have you involved, but you can't wear that. 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:50.760 I understand why you don't want to just be like, 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:53.920 all right, everybody dress up, you know, but do you 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.560 think there's any risk then that folks who are coming 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.879 through the experience sort of missed that fact. For me, 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:03.640 learning about this time period, what's so clear is that 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.400 like colonists knew about Native people, they were talking about 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:10.879 Native people. We were omnipresent in their lives, but in 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:16.600 the way that contemporary Americans tell that story, were absent. 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.040