Why I Don’t Celebrate Independence Day

‘Land of the Free’ is an odd nickname. This country was built on my ancestors’ stolen land.

An upside down American flag flies above Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on November 30, 2016 outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

I no longer celebrate Independence Day. Sure, I love a good slice of apple pie and fireworks, but this holiday is an annual gathering to celebrate a freedom that doesn’t exist. As citizens of the so-called United States, we’ve been told to use specific days that are set aside as opportunities to think about the sacrifices and victories that historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt heroically led. We sing songs about God blessing the U.S.A. and how beautiful America is, from sea to shining sea, but what is erased from the conversation is the genocide and theft of land that simultaneously occurred with the creation of this country that is still happening to this day.

The curriculum used by the American education system was developed to breed patriotism. Remember the Boston Tea Party? “No taxation without representation” is the slogan most associated with this act of protest, which resulted in the dumping of tea into Boston Harbor. The participants, known as the Sons of Liberty, purposely dressed up in Mohawk regalia pieces to symbolize that they no longer recognized themselves as citizens under the rule of the King. According to the Boston Tea Party Historical Society, the image of the “Indian” was used during this time as a symbol of the Patriots’ oppression from King George III and the freedom that these new Americans demanded.

The only time Native people exist in books or in modern mainstream media is in the form of stereotypical, underdeveloped caricatures. For decades, activists and allies have protested the use of Native people as sports mascots, with a good amount of pressure falling on the professional football team in Washington that currently uses a racial slur for their branding. This is just one of the teams that still upholds the use of Indigenous-inspired imagery as part of cheering on athletic performance. This misrepresentation has been allowed for too long on so many levels, going back to the education received in elementary school.

From an early age, we are told there was a peaceful feast shared by the “Pilgrims and Indians” where they sat together as friends to sing songs and love each other. I even have a picture of me, a young Cherokee girl, wearing a homemade Indian costume made out of brown paper grocery bags. What our textbooks failed to explain was the real truth.

This destructive, colonizing approach sailed to this side of the world with Columbus in 1492, continued for centuries prior to Andrew Jackson’s signing of the Indian Removal Act that brought the Trail of Tears upon my ancestors in 1838, and continues today.

According to Ramona Peters, the tribal historic preservation officer from the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which is the remaining descendants of the Natives who met the Separatists at what is now known as Plymouth, this image of the Pilgrims and Indians sitting together was an image constructed by Abraham Lincoln during a time of division. Yes, there was a treaty that was signed in 1621 between the Wampanoag and the religious refugees from England, but this was only to state an allyship between these two communities. Furthermore, the Separatists were still under the jurisdiction of the country they left behind, which meant that the treaty was actually between this specific Native community and England.

I was never told in school which Native community met the Separatists upon them landing on this continent. This purposeful erasure is to spread the rhetoric that a single Native people no longer exists, eliminating the diversity that exists among the 500+ tribes that still are around today. In fact, this belief of Native extinction hurt the Mashpee Wampanoag this year when the federal government attempted to take their tribal land. Yes, in 2020, Indigenous land is still being stolen because of money. Did you hear about that on the news?

Greed due to capitalism has always been the motivation to extract resources from this continent. This destructive, colonizing approach sailed to this side of the world with Columbus in 1492, continued for centuries prior to Andrew Jackson’s signing of the Indian Removal Act that brought the Trail of Tears upon my ancestors in 1838, and continues today in the form of pipelines, unnecessary housing developments, and police departments. Of course, there are thousands of other wealthy, white historical figures that modeled this same money-hungry attitude who are still revered. This needs to end. Upholding these racists gives power to a white patriarchal way of life that attacks majority Black and Brown communities.

The continued attack on Native sovereignty and land rights is because oppressors understand the traditional connection to the earth that all Indigenous cultures embrace. This plays directly into the rhetoric of populations from Latin America that are longing to find a home. They are mocked and labeled as rapists before their labor is exploited in fields full of strawberries that go on to top those expensive smoothie bowls sold in trendy parts of Los Angeles. This is one of the horrific reasons why African groups were stolen from their homelands and shipped across the world to tend their abuser’s crops, with their descendants locked away from the blue sky and green grass in prison cells. But most who dwell in this country aren’t ready to talk about how the same communities their ancestors attempted to wipe-out are actually the answer to the survival of this planet.

True freedom is a hard concept for me to imagine. That specific word has been so co-opted and turned into propaganda for this monster of consumerism we call the United States of America. I have hope that this generation, all of us alive today, will be the catalyst for change, but I doubt that we will reap the benefits of true liberation. I don’t want to discourage anyone but rather tend to be realistic. The American attitude of instant gratification and selfishness is too ingrained in our society, and there is no way to undo centuries of trauma in a couple of weeks. My motivation to fight during this lifetime is for the future generations who will experience true sovereignty. I believe my descendants will have the opportunities we never had including the change to celebrate authentic freedom. This is why I don’t celebrate Independence Day.