Declaration of Independence: “Merciless Indian savages” and the creation of empire

"The last grievance in the Declaration of Independence is about 'merciless Indian savages,'" says Cherokee author and journalist Rebecca Nagle. "According to our founders, in their own words, the thing that they were most angry about was Native people." She also argues that the "biggest myth" is that the founders built a democracy, "because they also built an empire," and that the two can't coexist.

Nagle partnered with leading Indigenous scholars on a new documentary podcast called “First America.” The series challenges the conventional U.S. origin story by examining the experiences of Indigenous peoples, and traces how laws and legal doctrines first used to dispossess Indigenous nations continue to impact questions of executive power, immigration, xenophobia, citizenship, territorial expansion and U.S. foreign policy today.