Thread: Watch/Listen: First America Series | Indigenous View on America's 250th Celebrations

TRAILER 250 Years of History Led Us Here... FIRST AMERICA Podcast��️



Credits:
Channel: Pushkin Industries
Published: 6/9/26
3:33 minutes

About First America
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.

DemocracyNow: First America Interview

[15:00] Interview with Rebecca Nagle, First America Producer

https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2026/6/30

Credits:
Channel: DemocracyNow
Published: 6/30/26
59:01 minutes


Who is Rebecca Nagle?
Rebecca Nagle is an award-winning advocate and writer focused on advancing Native rights and ending violence against Native women. Nagle is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and a two spirit/queer woman. Nagle is the host of the podcast This Land focused on treaty rights and tribal sovereignty in Oklahoma. Her writing about Native representation and tribal sovereignty has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, Teen Vogue, the Huffington Post, and more. In 2016, Nagle was named one of the National Center American Indian Enterprise Development’s Native American 40 Under 40 for her work to support survivors and advocate for policy change to address the crisis of violence against Native women. Nagle lives in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where she works for her tribe on language revitalization.

First America Series

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...tVL8_QYQMu2xW2

Episode 1: The Forgotten History Behind the Start of the American Revolution | First America Podcast



Summary
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.

Good to listen to on the 4th of July

Recommending:
Really, this is a GREAT Podcast Series
Have reached S1 E5 ...