As the United States marked its 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Native leaders, scholars, and advocates say the country’s milestone cannot be understood without acknowledging the Indigenous nations that predate the U.S and the promises that remain unfulfilled.
During a Native News Online live stream, America 250: A Republic Built on Native Land, hosted by Editor Levi Rickert, five conversations explored what America’s semiquincentennial means from Native perspectives. Guests included Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.; Navajo author and activist Mark Charles; Native Organizers Alliance Executive Director Judith LeBlanc; and professors Anton Treuer and Dina Gilio-Whitaker.
Although their perspectives differed, each agreed on one point: the nation’s history and its future must include Native voices.
A republic built on Native land
Hoskin opened the discussion by reminding viewers that tribal nations were governing themselves long before the U.S. existed.
“America was built on Native land,” Hoskin said, noting that tribal governments continue to exercise sovereignty today despite centuries of dispossession, forced removal, broken treaties, and federal assimilation policies.
Rather than viewing the 250th anniversary solely as a celebration, Hoskin said it should be an opportunity for honest reflection about how the country was founded and whether it has fulfilled its promises to Indigenous peoples.
He acknowledged progress in tribal self-governance and treaty recognition but argued that the nation still has work to do in honoring its commitments.
Confronting the Declaration’s contradictions
Several guests focused on one of the Declaration of Independence’s most controversial passages, where Native peoples are described as “merciless Indian savages.”
For Mark Charles, author of Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, the language reveals that the Declaration was never intended to include Indigenous peoples.
Charles argued that America’s founding documents reflected a worldview rooted in the Doctrine of Discovery and European colonial expansion rather than universal equality. He traced the historical roots of colonization through the Great Dying of Native populations in New England, the 1620 New England Charter, and the legal doctrines that justified taking Indigenous lands.
“The Fourth of July has never been our holiday,” Charles said, describing the nation’s anniversary as a reminder that Native peoples continue living with the consequences of colonization.
Watch the full conversation here.
Democracy remains unfinished
Judith LeBlanc challenged the idea that America has ever fully achieved democracy.
She said Native communities should use the anniversary to celebrate Indigenous resilience while also confronting the ongoing impacts of systemic racism, voter suppression, and economic inequality.
Drawing from the Native Organizers Alliance’s Indigenous Futures Survey, LeBlanc noted that Native voters consistently identify sovereignty, climate change, and economic well-being as their top priorities.
She argued that strengthening tribal sovereignty ultimately benefits the entire country by supporting environmental stewardship, public health, and democratic participation.
Rather than focusing only on the nation’s past failures, LeBlanc said Indigenous worldviews offer guidance for addressing today’s political and social challenges.
“Our belief systems are medicine,” she said. “Organizing is medicine.”
Hope alongside hard truths
Professors Anton Treuer and Dina Gilio-Whitaker offered historical context while acknowledging both America’s ideals and its contradictions.
Gilio-Whitaker argued that the U.S. was founded without the consent of Indigenous nations and that the legal framework governing tribal sovereignty continues to rest on the Doctrine of Discovery.
Treuer agreed that Native peoples continue to face significant disparities in health, opportunity, and political power but pointed to the resilience of tribal nations as a source of optimism.
He highlighted growing tribal self-determination, economic development, and cultural revitalization as evidence that Native nations continue to strengthen despite historic obstacles.
Both scholars emphasized that understanding America’s history requires acknowledging Native peoples not as a footnote to the nation’s founding but as central participants in its past, present and future.
Grading America at 250
Rickert concluded each conversation with the same question: If America received a report card on living up to the ideal that “all men are created equal,” what grade would it earn?
The answers reflected both frustration and hope.
Charles gave the nation an F, arguing that the United States has yet to confront the foundations of white supremacy embedded in its institutions.
Hoskin, Treuer, and Gilio-Whitaker each placed the nation somewhere around a C, recognizing meaningful progress while pointing to unfinished work in honoring treaties, protecting tribal sovereignty, and achieving equality.
LeBlanc declined to assign a letter grade, instead urging Americans to focus on building a future rooted in Indigenous values of community, responsibility, and collective care.
Taken together, the conversations suggested that America 250 presents more than a commemoration of the nation’s founding. For many Native leaders, it is an opportunity to reshape the national narrative by placing Indigenous history, sovereignty and survival at its center.
As the U.S> approaches its 250th anniversary, they argued that the country’s next chapter depends not on celebrating a mythologized past but on confronting history honestly—and recognizing that tribal nations remain essential to America’s future.
The interview is part of Native News Online’s ongoing America 250: A Republic Built on Native Land initiative, which explores the nation’s 250th anniversary through Indigenous perspectives.
Watch the entire stream here:
