On this edition of Your Call, we begin The US at 250: A Native Perspective, a new series that will center Native historians, activists, storytellers, and elders to reveal the pre- and post-colonial history of these lands and the resilience and strength of its first peoples.
As the United States prepares to mark 250 years, the Trump administration is celebrating the Doctrine of Discovery, a 15th-century legal principle that authorized European explorers to claim lands already inhabited by Indigenous peoples, effectively erasing their sovereignty and laying the groundwork for the deaths of millions of Indigenous peoples through conquest, displacement, and disease.
For far too long, historians, politicians, and the media have erased and ignored those who have lived on these lands long before settlers arrived. We're calling on them to focus on a broader understanding of the so-called founding of the United States.
In his book, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, historian Ned Blackhawk writes: "How can a nation founded on the homelands of dispossessed Indigenous people be the world’s most exemplary democracy? This question haunts America, as it does other settler nations. Among historians, silence, rather than engagement, has been the most common response, together with a continued unwillingness to see America’s diversity from the vantage point of those most impacted by the expansion of the United States. The most enduring feature of US history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America."
Guest:
Ned Blackhawk, Professor of History at Yale University, and author of The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History
Resources:
The Atlantic: How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution
The Washington Post: National park signs related to Native Americans, climate change to be removed
NPR: FCC calls for more ‘patriotic, pro-America’ programming in run-up to 250th anniversary
