What Indigenous People Think of the 250th: The First America Podcast Series w/ Rebecca Nagle
Native people have been written out of the American story, but without us you don’t know what happened. This summer the United States will celebrate the 250-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. When you read the Declaration, you realize it is a list of complaints. The last entry, the climax in our founders’ reasons for rebellion against the Crown, is this: “He has excited… the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
We have been told the Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. But what the founders were most angry about in our country’s most famous document was Indian affairs. How did generations of Americans miss this?
The first armed rebellion against the Crown was an attack on British forts that traded with tribes. When colonists threw tea into the Boston harbor, they dressed up like members of the Mohawk tribe—not for disguise, but because pretending to be Indian symbolized freedom and rebellion. The founding fathers’ first government failed because Indigenous nations were too powerful; war and diplomacy with Native people is why we have a central federal government.
Hosted and reported by Rebecca Nagle and featuring leading Native historians, First America unveils how the founders’ treatment of Indigenous nations—and their resistance—shaped US democracy. The show does not simply add another blemish to the image of the founding fathers, it reveals the real story of why the colonists rebelled, what kind of government they created, and, crucially, how our current political moment was 250 years in the making.
FirstAmerica.info
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@SuperVlerik
July 6, 2026 at 11:22 am
Loving Rebecca Nagle here! ❤
@Wild1-o6g
July 6, 2026 at 11:22 am
I believe in the Indian culture which is more closely aligned with our environment. This is where I want to live. The colonizers are destroyers and out of synch, more at corruption and greed for disease ridden money.
@1o1s1s1i1e
July 6, 2026 at 11:22 am
Powerful conversation! Thank you both! When one looks at what is happening in Palestine and Lebanon they are using the same playbook; the Israeli "setters" using white phosphorus to destroy olive groves is being used like destroying the corn and fruit trees really hits home. My wife of 54 years died of ALS on the 21st of February this year and when I cashed an insurance check for cash and realized that the bank sent a flag to the Federal government and how they follow "our" money is crazy. If we do not learn our history properly this criminal abuse of people will continue.
@JasmineSeason-j4i
July 6, 2026 at 11:22 am
❤❤❤❤❤
@silviopina_111
July 6, 2026 at 11:22 am
There they GO!!! 👏
@alexanderleuchte5132
July 6, 2026 at 11:22 am
"Ein Indianer kennt keinen Schmerz" "An Indian knows no pain"
that is literally the common German equivalent to "Boys don't cry", i just had a moment where that really occured to me,
while listening to the cover version of that CURE song by YACØPSÆ haha
⬛🟨⬜🟥✌
@garyjohnson8327
July 6, 2026 at 11:22 am
I've heard Rebecca talk on behalf of Freedmen and undocumented people, never Indians tho. Somehow she missed the echo of being crowded out by illegal squatters or Oklahoma threatening still sovereignty