Merciless Indian Savages | Episode 1

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Optum is making healthcare work as one for everyone. See what Optum's up to at Optum.com. These days there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. Your social media feed is packed with wellness trends, telling you to cold plunge, protein max, and so much more. But what's actually real, what's exaggerated, and what's just wrong? Health versus hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy-nominated host Trace Dominguez talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters? Listen to health versus hype wherever you get your podcasts. Rebecca Nagel here. Before we get into this episode, I wanted to let you know that you can hear episodes of First America early and ad-free by signing up for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audio books, and other benches from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin Plus on the First America Show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. Let's get into it. Where do you want to park? I think you have to park in here. The four is that way? Yeah, the four is that way. On a cold day in January, I visited Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. I was there with my friend, Nick Gastas. He's a history professor at the University of Minnesota and a citizen of the Lower Burl Sioux Tribe. This is the historic Fort Snelling. Don't want to walk closer to it. Can you just describe what the fort looks like? Well, the fort has a guard tower, and then there's a wall that surrounds the entire fort. There's a series of barracks. Next to the historic buildings are modern day trash cans to let you know this is a tourist attraction. School kids come here on field trips. This is a sacred site for Dakota people, which was later appropriated by the US military to build their fort. So look at that bald eagle. Told you we're going to see one. Yeah. I wish the United States never appropriated the eagle, do you hear him? Look at him, he's coming, right towards us. I mean, I don't know, man. I don't know how you can't believe in the power of this stuff because there's things happen for a reason. Hold you, we're going to see one. The history of what happened at Fort Snellin is significant to the Dakota people, and that history is acknowledged at the site, but you have to go and find it. It's like a healing site right over here. It's next to an underpass down along set of stairs on the edge of the woods. Can you guys subscribe what the memorial looks like? Yeah, so it's like a camp circle, but in the center, it looks like there's prioritize, sage, tobacco, etc. wrapped in cloth, and they're also prioritized in the trees that surround us. Who do you think left a purchase in the trees? I'm assuming it's the descendants of those who experience that genocide. Over 1600 Dakota people were held here during the winter of 1862. This is the area actually where the concentration camp was actually at. Dakota people, people who dared to stand up to the United States were put into a concentration camp, and all kinds of atrocities happened. The concentration camp was just one part of a broader campaign to expel all Dakota people from the state of Minnesota. The campaign also included death marches, massacres, bounties placed on indigenous heads, open air prisons, and mass executions. There was a lot of malnutrition, purposeful starvation. There were reports of women being raped and violated, you know, it's a sight of horrors. Do you think most people who come to the spot, do you think that they come here to honor the atrocity that happened here? No, they're doing winter sports, recreation. I mean, you can see right here, you can see these parallel tracks, people cross-country ski through this area. While we were standing there, some hikers walked by. Walking around for its snowing with Nick, it felt like this perfect metaphor for our country. All our terrible history, it's there, we just don't know how to talk about it. This all started as a conversation between Nick and me about four years ago. We were frustrated, well, I was pissed, at how native people are erased from the story of America. We wanted to tell the history of the United States with native people written back in. I wanted to correct the record. When we were in the car, Nick's phone rang. He pulled up the news on his phone. Making witnesses report, a woman was shot in the face by ice while trying to flee in central Minneapolis. Earlier that day, a woman named Renee Nicole Good had tried to block ice agents with her car. An agent had just shot and killed her. Damn, the photos are really bad. Oh, God. It looks like a deployed airbag is just covered in blood. We parked and watched the video. When I was in Minneapolis last January, thousands of ice agents were on the ground. Federal agents had been rounding people up, including children, and sending them to detention facilities. People were afraid to leave their homes, parents stopped sending their kids to school. It's interesting given what we were talking about this morning of the history of Dakota people being rounded up and violently forced out of Minnesota. When I started this project, I thought I was making a history podcast. I read books, I interviewed historians, I went to important sites, I traveled across the country. But then this thing kept happening. I would be in a place learning about America's past, and then the same thing would happen right here in our present. We're listening to First America, the true story of how the United States came to be. And how our current political moment is 250 years in the making. From pushkin industries and critical frequency, I'm your host, Rebecca Nagel. Gohin Daotong, Jelaka Yetling, Kenla, citizen of Cherokee Nation. I didn't go to Minneapolis to report on ICE. I had come to interview Nick. We just happened to be at Fort Snelling the day ICE shot and killed Renee Good. I don't know about you, but I don't believe in coincidences. I canceled my flight home and stayed to report on what was happening. And next morning, there was a protest back at Fort Snelling. Because Fort Snelling is also the site of ICE's headquarters in Minneapolis. today because I mean you know someone was literally killed yesterday for standing up to I so is it is it scary to be here today knowing the island yes it's scary and I'm angry and the anger overcomes the fear I have a good friend and she lived in Denmark during the German occupation and she has told me over and over again you could not be quiet you must end up because silence is what allowed this to happen in the second world war how how far are we from the historic fort selling I'm just right across highway 62 here and do you know what happened there oh now no don't ask me those kinds of questions I'm not good with history it's a historic fort it's historic yeah sorry to put you on the spot I mean the reason this is not happening here is because of the ice offices that are there not because of the historic fort but the fourth and the 1860s is actually a concentration camp for Dakota people I'm just curious if any of that history feels relevant to what's happening now yes clearly you know but I mean our state I mean just I yeah I mean what I mean you you watch that video thank god that person was there taking the video on their cell phone yesterday so everyone can see what happened you know after leaving the protest I went back to see Nick Estes at his office the murder of Renee good and the history of fort snowing are actually inseparable first of all ice is headquartered on the fort snowing area campus do you know if that's because it's federal land yeah it's it's headquartered there because it's federal land and why is it federal land it's federal land because it was once a military reservation from the Zebulan Pike Treaty of 1805 and that was a treaty signed between some Dakota leaders and the United States government to create a military outpost it's not just the same place the same thing is happening people are being hunted in their neighborhoods and their schools places that were considered sanctuary sites such as hospitals and churches are no longer off limits 150 years ago they were hunting us down to kill us and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them while I was out reporting this project a lot happened ice killed people in the streets I watched a kid in bunny ears get detained our government abducted the leader of Venezuela and started a war with Iran analysts kept talking about the stages of authoritarianism and I found myself asking this question I think a lot of people are asking how is this happening how is all this happening in the United States the answers I kept hearing youtube lonely white men the economy didn't feel like enough I started to wonder if maybe the explanation was deeper than all that deeper than anything going on right now I'm still trying to figure it out but the more time I spend in the past the more the present makes sense maybe the answer is in that history we don't know how to talk about this is Robert Smith from business history if you're listening to this there's a good chance you're a small business owner and like every small business owner you started with a dream to do what you love and watch it grow what you probably didn't dream about keeping up with cyber threats that's where master card can help with access to tools that help identify cyber threats to better protect your business building a dream business priceless for cyber security in a changing world there's master card learn more mastercard dot com slash small business these days there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health and we've all gone down on internet rabbit hole exploring the latest health trends your social media feed is packed with wellness advice telling you to cold plunge protein max detox track your sleep but what's actually real what's exaggerated and what's just wrong that's exactly what health versus hype from the american medical association and iheart media's ruby studio is here to find out each episode Emmy nominated science communicator trace de Minguez who's racked up billions of views across pbs discovery channel in youtube talks to health influencers real people and most importantly doctors in order to separate fact from fiction because when it comes to your health who you listen to matters listen to health versus hype on the iheart radio app apple podcast or ever you get your podcasts okay let's talk about something everyone has an opinion on health care everyone can agree that something this important should work better than it does turns out patients aren't the only ones who think that often does to and it's why they're working day in and day out to improve it never heard of often think of them as the engine of health care they bring together clinicians care teams and the way you get in manager medications and they use data and technology to help the health systems we all use work better as a whole not as disconnected pieces because they connect all these pieces often can take a more whole person approach to health care like helping patients connect in mental health support quickly and bringing primary care and prescription deliveries straight to their home so people can stay on top of their health those things make a big difference and they show that often really is trying to make healthcare better that their clinicians pharmacist data scientist engineers everyone is putting in the work to improve it every day see what optims up to at optim.com the first place I went on my quest to put native people back in the story of America was the declaration of independence this year is the 250th anniversary of the signing of that famous document and it made sense to me as a starting place I mean it's the most popular origin story of our country right but it turns out what I thought I knew about the declaration was wrong native people aren't missing we're there we're one of the most important lines in the document but somehow no one knows about it when in the courts of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another a couple of summers ago on a hot July day this man in a large coat and a feathered hat walked up a small set of stairs surrounded by revolutionary war reenactors bayonets and the twin speakers of the park services PA system he began reading the declaration of independence we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal that they are indial by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness at the time of the documents creation a lot of people were illiterate and printing stuff was slow and expensive so words spread through public readings like this one I think of the declaration of independence like a breakup letter our founders are breaking up with George the third king of England and the declaration is that part of every breakup or at least every bad breakup where you tell the other person everything they did wrong if Thomas Jefferson and King George were having an out on the front lawn Jefferson would have his finger and George's face yelling and another thing for imposing taxes on us without our consent and so the declaration is basically this long list of complaints he has under the hour see a lot of historians say that list has an order it starts with smaller grievances and ends with the biggest ones we've been told the American revolution was fought over taxes and representation but the last complaint the thing our founders were most angry about goes like this he has endeavour to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages there's a racial slur in the declaration of independence native people are cult savages alongside those lofty ideals our founders included their deep hatred for indigenous people the merciless Indian savages whose noble of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions in case you need a refresher the popular story of the American revolution goes like this of Britain unjustly imposed taxes. on the colonists, and they got mad. But every time they protested, like when they threw tea into the Boston Harbor, the king just imposed harsher laws. The colonists started to see their king as a tyrant. Some started talking about independence. Late one night, Paul Revier rode his horse to warn militias waiting outside Boston that the British were coming. The next morning, the militia squared off against the Brits, and the Revolutionary War began. A year later, our founding fathers gathered in Philadelphia to write the Declaration of Independence. But for two and a half centuries, that document has been telling a different story. According to our founders, in their own words, what they were most angry about was Indians. How did we all miss that? Can you please introduce yourself? Hi, I'm Ned Blackhawk. I went to Connecticut to find out. And what's your tribal affiliation? I'm Western Shoshani. And what do you do, Ned? I teach history. Where? New York University, I was the first tenured American Indian to teach at Yale. Wait, I just kind of went back up like in the entire history of Yale. You're the first native person to get tenured here? Yes, and I'm still the first. So the only? Tenured faculty member, yes. Is it ever lonely? Ned wears a long ponytail and the kind of sweater you imagine a professor would wear. And then I have been talking about this history for years. He, along with Nick Estes and some other indigenous scholars, helped shape the idea for this podcast. I wanted Ned to tell me the story of why the founders hated indigenous people so much. They put it in the declaration of independence. Ned says that story starts a couple decades earlier with this big, big war. Was it kind of like World War Zero? No, it is the first World War. It started as a fight over who would control North America and it eventually covered the globe. Great Britain won. And they got a bunch of land from France. This land spans from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from present day New York to Minnesota. The colonists are thrilled. All across British North America, colonists are rejoicing. Servants are being offered in Sundays, pamphlets and almond acts are being written about land possibilities in the interior and there's this kind of growing sense of shared kind of euphoria that the British government and the British Empire are not just the largest in world history but also the most virtuous and or free. Those celebrations come to a halt in the summer of 1763 when new spreads of an indigenous uprising. The land England took over from France is still controlled by indigenous nations. What England actually wins in the war in real terms is forts, about 13 forts stationed around the Great Lakes. As a new Fortboss in town, England thinks it can push native nations around. They don't listen to the native peoples, they don't trade with them adequately. And that anger is indigenous leaders. Anodawa chief named Pontiac forms a multinational indigenous military alliance to push back. But can you just tell me a little bit more about who Pontiac is? Pontiac is anodawa leader and he's fallen into close affinity with a preacher who's Delaware or Lenape, named Neolan. Neolan is the Delaware prophet, Pontiac is the political leader and together they start articulating a vision for the future that is transformative. They decide that they no longer want their followers to rely upon the goods of Europeans. And it's a process kind of similar to what the colonists are going through. Because once they start reimagining themselves in these ways, they decide that they're going to drive the English out. And the economic soldiers go around and attack British forts. One of those attacks was particularly brilliant. Some Anishinaabe warriors go to this fort in northern Michigan as they often did to trade. But while they're there, they pretend to play a game of lacrosse right outside the fort. And one ball makes it over the fence and so they ask if they could kind of get their ball returned as the fort officials are opening the doors to return the ball that's been taken and flood of warriors that come in and destroy the fort. Pontiac's military alliance attacks forts all over the Great Lakes region. Remember, England took over about 13 forts while Pontiac and his alliance destroyed eight. And they signal to the English that peace is going to be more costly than war has been for you. And another costly war for the crown is a big problem. England is broke. Like broke broke. That global war England spent almost a decade fighting. It was expensive. The crown doesn't want to pay for another one. And they decide, okay, we'll make peace with Pontiac. And why would the king do that? Because England is a global empire, so why would the king of England want more land in North America? Okay. Have you ever been to India? No. Have you heard of the Caribbean? Yes. Okay. The English crown governs millions of people around the world. The British colonists in North America are a small percentage of that. The overwhelming economic priorities that the British empire has in the Western hemisphere revolve around places like Jamaica and Barbados, not Virginia or Massachusetts. Is that because Barbados makes the crown more money? Correct. Because Barbados produces large quantities of slave produce alcohol and sugar that can be consumed across the British empire. So in the interest of Britain, this global empire, peace with indigenous nations makes the most sense, it saves the crown money, it serves the crown's interests. To preserve peace, the king of England gives Pontiac and his Confederacy what they want. The proclamation line of October 1763 draws this perimeter along the crests of the Appalachian Mountains. The crown promises to keep settlers off their land. So everything east is British North America. Everything to the west is to be reserved for the Indians. While peace with indigenous nations serves the crown's global interests, it angers the colonists because it takes from them what they want most. More land. Land, mania, we might say, overwhelms the colonial system. Gentry leaders, people like George Washington, understood that their lands were becoming increasingly less valuable. People like Washington and commanding their enslaved populations to help bring nutrient-rich soils from the bottom of river beds because the fields have become so depleted. People like George Washington made money from this thing called land speculation. They'd buy up land that still belonged to indigenous nations to sell for profit once indigenous people were pushed out. The king's new boundary, it messed up their whole scheme. The boundary line angered regular and poor people too. People who couldn't afford to buy private property often squatted on indigenous land. Pioneers, frontiersmen, settlers, whatever you want to call them were already living west of the king's line. And there are numbers of settlers who are forced back east, and they don't like it. And there's this other thing about the king's concession to Pontiac, the colonists don't like. Peace. You have to understand that the colonists have been at war with indigenous nations for most of their lives. And now the king wants to make peace with their enemies. In fact, the British are going to give them ammunition, they're going to trade with them, they're going to recognize them, hey, wait a minute, didn't we just fight with you to control this world? To help cement peace with Pontiac, England arranges to bring gifts and supplies. This was how diplomacy between indigenous nations and European powers worked back then. 80 supply or meal trains are coming, massive, actually, logistical undertaking if you think about it. At Pittsburgh awaits these traders who are going to take these goods to Pontiac's confederate. The colonists organize a militia, basically a band of angry white men with guns, and attack the convoy. The first shots of the American Revolution are fired in March of 1765, when one of these backcountry militia groups known as the Black Boys attacks a British force escorting trade goods to Pontiac. They're not attacking indigenous people. The Black Boys are attacking British troops. They say things like, we are willing to die, to disrupt and destroy these relationships. So before the class, The colonists are willing to die for lofty ideals like freedom and liberty and independence. They are willing to die to stop the crown for making peace with indigenous nations. And we know why they are willing to die for this cause, because they wrote a song about it. The black boys create an anthem, and that anthem calls native peoples the enemies of mankind. I ask Ned to read part of it for me. On March the 5th and 65, their Indian presence did arrive, but when this property is designed to serve the enemy of mankind, it's high treason in the amount. What does that line mean? It means that the British trading policies of supplying native peoples are supporting the enemies of not just other society, but mankind more broadly. The Britain is committing treason not to the crown, but to humanity as a whole. And so this vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for mankind, the first time mankind has been articulated that I'm aware of is in deeply anti-indigenous settings. Seeing indigenous people, seeing us as less than human, helps the colonists come together and form a unified identity. It helped them come together to fight for independence. I do believe the start of the fall of the British Empire North America began on the Pennsylvania frontier. The sense of lawlessness or essentially fashioning one's own self-governing principles and practices, this is happening before in Pennsylvania, before it's happening in Massachusetts. We teach the origins of the American Revolution as this drumbeat of violence and protest happening in Boston over taxes. But years before any of that, colonists are firing guns at British troops over native land. And to my knowledge, that Black boys history that we've been discussing has yet to appear in any US history textbook. Why we can't tell that story is a mystery to me. Before I left Yale, I gave Ned a present. You want me to open this? Yeah. You may or may not want it. Declaration of independence, shot glass. Thank you so much. What does it say? Be the people. What do you, does that shot glass represent if we think about how Americans think about their history? I wanted to say something that it's easily digestible. Goes down smooth. I think we as a country are losing a real sense of understanding about our nation's past. The declaration, which is full of these beautiful, beautifully rendered, you know, senses and paragraphs about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it. Why is it important for the darker part of the declaration of independence in the American Revolution? Why is it important that Americans know about it? Well if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself. I'm mad that Native people have been written out of the story of the Revolution, but I'm also baffled by it. I mean, it's kind of wild, right? It's not like you have to dig through the archives to find out that hunger for indigenous land of the Revolution, it's right there in the Declaration of Independence, in one of our country's most famous documents, in one of the most famous documents in all of human history, but somehow no one knows about it. It feels like a magic trick, like making a rabbit disappear into a hat. And when I started this project, that's what I thought I was up against, the pervasive and systemic erasure of Native people from US history. I thought the thing people couldn't see was me, my community. And then I started to realize what's missing from the story of America. It's bigger than that. After I left Minneapolis, I kept hearing politicians say the same thing. What's happening right now in America is fundamentally un-American. This is just so un-American. I understand where this comes from, it comes from the part of the Declaration of Independence we were taught, the all men are created equal, life, liberty, and happiness part. But when we tell the whole story, the truth of how and why our country was founded, the present moment doesn't feel like a contradiction. Violently rounding people up, putting people in detention, even shooting anyone who gets in the way, our government has done this before, not once, not twice, many times. We just don't talk about that history because it happened to indigenous people. I keep hearing people go to Nazi Germany or Putin's Russia to try and understand the rise of fascism. We don't need to leave the United States to understand the horrors of authoritarianism. It's right here in our own history. And if we want to root that authoritarianism out, we have to know where and how it started. If we think we can win by defeating one leader, it will be like pruning a weed. It will only come back stronger. I thought what was missing from the story of America was Native people. But then I realized without us, that story is wrong. What's missing from the story of America is the truth. I want us to know how we got here. Because without that, we will never find our way out. Clean up on this season of First America. I feel like that's going to happen a lot. Do Native Americans still exist? Maybe. I don't really think so. So the entire plan for funding the federal government was acquiring indigenous land and selling it. You were running for your lives and you saw behind you everything you knew being burned down. What democracy rounds an entire ethnic group up at gunpoint and puts them into a concentration camp? Like not a strong democracy, not a durable democracy, I would say not even a democracy. It's not. It's not a new thing. We're good at this. If you like what you're hearing, please leave a review. It's one of the best ways to help listeners find this show. You can also support First America by subscribing or sharing episodes with your friends. First America was made possible by the generous support of the Henry Loose Foundation in the NYU Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project. People support came from Indian Collective, First Nations Development Institute, Yohavya Tom of San Manuel Nation, Borealis Philanthropy and Black Liberation Indigenous Sovereignty Collective. Our physical sponsor is Bread Media. I dreamed this project into the world in collaboration with an amazing group of indigenous scholars, including Maggie Blackhawk, Fond de Lac, Ojibwe, Ned Blackhawk, Citizen of the Team Oak Tribe of Western Chishone, Phil DeLoria, Descendant of the Standing Rock and Yankton Sioux Tribes, and Nick Estes, Citizen of the Lower Barrel Sioux Tribe. I, Rebecca Nagle, Citizen of Cherokee Nation, also reported, wrote, hosted and executive produced the show. First America is produced by Critical Frequency and distributed by Pushkin Industries. Our Managing Producer is Amy Westerville, Senior Producer and Sound Designer is Brendan Baker. Our Story Editor is Audrey Quinn, Jules Bradley, Kim Netterview-Petersa, and Jordan Gas-Pore are our producers. Our editorial consultant is Connie Walker, Citizen of the Oganese First Nation, fact-checking by Naomi Bar. Our Partnerships Director is Lindsay Crowder. Our Development Consultant is Jenny Lawton. Our theme song is by Raven Chacon, who is Dene, scoring by Laura Ortman, Citizen of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, and Raven Chacon. Work by Kelly Gonzales, Citizen of Cherokee Nation. The team at Pushkin is Greta Cohn, CEO, Eric Sandler, Chief Strategy Officer, Grace Ross, VP of Business Development, Morgan Ratner, Director of Marketing, Owen Miller, Content Delivery Associate, Kee Raposi, Creative Partnerships Manager, Jordan McMillan, Social Media Manager, Brian Strabenek, Senior Analytics Manager, and Jake Flanagan, Production Council. This is Robert Smith from Business History. 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