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Support the work on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/c/u40108333America is preparing to celebrate 250 years of independence. But for Native people, the founding story looks very different.In this episode, I discuss the contradictions at the heart of American independence: a nation speaking the language of freedom while enslaving Black people, invading Native homelands, and building a settler colonial empire. The Declaration of Independence famously says “all men are created equal,” but it also describes Native people as “merciless Indian Savages.” That phrase tells us a lot about how Native nations were positioned in the American imagination from the very beginning.We also look at how settler colonialism works, why Native people are so often erased from the founding of the United States, and how the American Revolution was deeply connected to land hunger, westward expansion, and resentment toward the British Proclamation Line of 1763. Many settlers did not just want freedom from the king. They wanted access to Native land.I also talk about the Boston Tea Party and the strange contradiction of white colonists dressing as Native people while actual Native nations were being dehumanized, attacked, and removed. America has always wanted Native identity as a symbol while rejecting Native sovereignty in reality.This episode also draws from the work of historian Ned Blackhawk, especially his article in The Atlantic, “How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution,” and his books:The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. HistoryViolence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American WestIndigenous Visions: Rediscovering the World of Franz BoasNed Blackhawk’s work reminds us that Native nations were not side characters in American history. Native diplomacy, Native resistance, Native sovereignty, and Native land were central to the making of the United States.I also reflect on my own experience growing up in a settler colonial education system where Native people were either erased, romanticized, or treated like we belonged only to the past. As a kid, I could not see myself in the history I was being taught. That is what colonial education does. It teaches us to celebrate conquest and call it progress.America is 250 years old. Native history is thousands of years old.Native people are not mascots, costumes, savages, or ghosts of the past. We are nations. We are peoples. We are still here.For questions, speaking, collaborations, or media inquiries:Email: bernardnavarro1971@gmail.com
Follow me:Instagram: @7thgenpodcastTikTok: @mercilesssavagezYouTube: Dr. B TeachesReferences:Ned Blackhawk, “How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution,” The AtlanticNed Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. HistoryNed Blackhawk, Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American WestNed Blackhawk, Indigenous Visions: Rediscovering the World of Franz Boas
