Native Americans and The Declaration of Independence

Show notes

"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

How are we supposed to understand the phrase "merciless Indian Savages" in the Declaration of Independence?

In this episode, expert in American Indian history Prof. Matthew Kruer (U. of Chicago) gives a thorough analysis of indigenous-colonial relations from the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) through the Declaration of Independence (1776).

Topics include the following:

-The enormous diversity of the 574 indigenous nations recognized by the US Federal government

-The Great Dying, which led to the death of 90% of the indigenous population of North America due to war, disease, and enslavement

-The complexity and size of indigenous urban centers and trade networks

-The consequences of the Seven Years' War (or the French and Indian War), which ended in 1763, for native peoples and colonists

-The Proclamation of 1763, which demarcated settler country and Indian country

-Pontiac's War (1764) and settler-Indian violence

-The rise of the Black Boys, arguably the first violent anti-British imperial militia

-Dunmore's War (1774), the conflict between Mingo and Shawnee against the Virginia Militia

-Indigenous reactions to the Declaration

The episode ends with a reflection on the tension between the ideals expressed in the Declaration and the characterization of native peoples as "merciless Indian savages."

The books discussed in the episode are:

Kruer, Matthew. Time of Anarchy: Indigenous Power and the Crisis of Colonialism in Early America. (2021, Harvard UP).

Blackhawk, Ned. The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History. (2023, Yale UP).