This Independence Day, we will tell ourselves a lot of stories about what it means to be American. One consistent narrative, however, even 250 years in, is our country’s inability to reckon with the genocide of Indigenous people that kicked the whole thing off.

According to Rebecca Nagle, a citizen of Cherokee Nation, a writer and journalist, and the host of the new podcast First America, the Founding Fathers initially faced an identity crisis. “They were in a tricky place: They’re not English anymore, they’re actually literally fighting a war to no longer be English, but they’re not yet something else,” she says.

So they reached for a symbol close at hand: that of Native people. Soon enough, Indigenous figures were appearing on Colonial American guns, pamphlets, and ships. Colonists even dressed up as Native Americans for the Boston Tea Party—a practice that historian Philip Deloria refers to as “playing Indian.” As Nagle puts it, “Playing Indian is kind of the bridge that gets them to this new American identity.”

On a recent episode of What Next, Lizzie O’Leary spoke to Nagle about how America’s original sin is written into who we are today. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Lizzie O’Leary: I want to talk about the Declaration of Independence. The part that so many Americans are taught in school is: “We hold these truths to be self-evident … life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But in the first episode of First America, you focus on a different part. Could you explain that to me?

Rebecca Nagle: The part we........

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