Saturday marks 250 years since the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. That defiant act with a quill pen resulted in a bloody revolution and ultimately led to the birth of a new nation.
In 1776, the Founding Fathers rejoiced with parades and fireworks. That tradition of celebrating this rebellious occasion remains much the same on this semiquincentennial anniversary — but Indigenous peoples have a more complicated relationship with this federal holiday.
Here’s a fact from Navajo activist Mark Charles, who lives in Washington, D.C., and is the blogger of Wirelesshogan. It’s something the catchy "Schoolhouse Rock" tune called “Fireworks” left out of its lyrical lesson plan about the nation’s founding text. This very song was written — 50 years ago — for the U.S. bicentennial in 1976.
“Thirty lines below the statement ‘all men are created equal’ refers to Native peoples as merciless Indian savages,” Charles shared. “And one of their grievances against the king is that he took away their right of discovery.”
In fact, this gripe might’ve been the final straw for the frustrated colonists since it was the last of 27 grievances levied against King George III before the original 13 colonies broke away from the British Crown.
The Declaration’s authors, the Committee of Five, claimed the monarchy “excited domestic insurrections amongst us.” They go on to say the king “endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers” following the Seven Years’ War — more commonly known as the French and Indian War today.
Those original inhabitants were labeled by writers Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston as so-called “merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
Charles, who is a co-author of “Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery,” contends the Declaration of Independence’s tenet principle — all men are created equal — never applied to them.
Neither did the seminal phrase: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“They refer to us in dehumanizing terms and this is really crucial, because again people look at this as an aspirational, great grandiose document,” added Charles. “But the more we understand this history, we see that’s not the case.”
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