As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Native Americans are confronting their complicated history with the United States.
The Trail of Tears and the Continuing Resilience of the Cherokee Nation
The Trail of Tears is a story of migration, loss, and enduring resilience of the Cherokee people that still resonates along their journey to Oklahoma.
HALIFAX, N.C. — Marty Richardson made his way through a crowd of onlookers attending a local 250th anniversary celebration and descended into a wooded forest.
When Richardson began speaking, the crowd fell silent. He said the Haliwa-Saponi Indian tribe has endured wars, land invasions and devastating diseases introduced by European settlers over the past two and a half centuries, forces that nearly wiped out the tribe.
“Treaties with colonies and countries have been broken, and promises to the people have not been fulfilled,” he said, raising his voice.
For Native American tribes in the United States, marking the nation’s 250th anniversary is complicated.
The American Revolution led to the society we live in today. But it has also accelerated the destruction of the indigenous civilizations that have called this land home for thousands of years. Many Native American tribes in the eastern United States fought for the British during the war to protect their lands from further European invasion.
Some tribes consider this anniversary a commemoration of colonization. Many people are not aware of this festival. Some believe we need to use this fleeting moment to educate more Americans about our country’s history.
“Our people endured and we are still here,” Richardson told the crowd in Halifax.
The Haliwa-Saponi Tribe is a state-recognized tribe seeking federal recognition. Richardson said they chose to attend official events in North Carolina to secure their seats.
“We welcome the opportunity to spend the next 250 years of our country recognizing and making amends for the treatment of Indigenous peoples, including us in important decisions, and affirming our presence.”
eastern band of cherokee indians
Dakota Brown of the Eastern Cherokee Indian Band, located 400 miles to the west on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, said her tribe rejected a similar offer to participate in the official 250th anniversary convention.th memorial.
Mr. Brown has served as director of education at the Cherokee National Museum for six years. The requests she received from museums and historic sites never felt “quite right,” she said, because they didn’t center Cherokee voices.
This year, the museum has chosen to build a unique exhibit on tribal perspectives on the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.
The Revolutionary War was a turning point for the Cherokee. In 1763, British King George III prohibited settlers from settling on Native American lands west of the Appalachian Mountains.
The colonists saw this law as a violation of their rights. When they ignored the boundaries, British leaders told the Cherokee they could force the people off their land. During the Revolutionary War, tribes viewed the British as the lesser of two evils.
“The truth is we fought on our side,” Brown said. “We fought on the side of the Cherokee.”
About four years ago, the museum began searching for historical artifacts and primary documents created by the Cherokee people during the war.
Narratives about the Cherokee written by non-Natives in the late 1700s presented a biased and often Eurocentric understanding of the tribe’s culture. For example, colonial artists painted portraits of prominent male leaders of the Cherokee Nation, but not of the women who played similar roles.
Kelly Gonzalez, a painter commissioned by the museum, was frustrated by the lack of representation of women.
It showed the “gap” between Cherokee and European culture, she said. Women controlled children and property and played important roles in tribal politics.
“It seems like the men were listened to, and they probably didn’t interview or talk to the women,” Gonzalez said of European settlers.
But the museum has uncovered some illuminating first-person perspectives of women of the time.
One prominent Cherokee named Catteuha co-authored a letter to Benjamin Franklin during the 1787 Constitutional Convention urging him to promote peace between Native Americans and settlers.
Convention attendees “should be concerned about what women say,” Franklin wrote.
Angered by this story, Gonzalez created a modern portrait of Catuja. She wanted to spark a conversation about identity and whose history is being told.
“What I was thinking of was something like portraits of Cherokee dignitaries. Those are really cool portraits, but they’re all men,” she said. “Women were never portrayed in the same light.”
Akimel O’odham: Friendship and Betrayal
David Martinez, an Aquimel O’odham member of the Gila River Indian Community, called his and other tribes’ relationship with the United States “toxic.”
The Akimel O’odham (or River People) and their neighbors, the Pee Posh (water people), had never encountered Americans until the Mexican-American War.
The tribe’s lands are located in the Salt River Valley and along the Gila River in central Arizona.
As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, Martinez said, “we should take a moment to remember what Indians have done for us.”th Founding anniversary.
“O’odham farmers benefited from people passing through,” said Martinez, director of the Transboundary Indigenous Research Institute and professor of American Indian studies at Arizona State University.
The O’odham and Pea Posh people provided food and protection to American settlers and the U.S. military.
“There was a geopolitical connection because the U.S. military went after the Apaches and the Navajos,” Martinez said.
In 1859, Congress expressed the nation’s gratitude by creating the first reservation in Arizona. The two tribes, now known as the Gila River Indian Community, were guaranteed 372,000 acres of land along the Gila River.
But that friendship was betrayed when settlers dried up the Gila River with dams and diversions upstream. After decades of litigation, the tribe finally had its water rights restored.
Martinez said the O’odham have had to continually ask, “What about us?” Because treaties were signed and land was purchased.
“It’s natural for us to get along with people, but[the colonists]come from a selfish culture.”
“First Contact Tribes” also participate.
The Shinnecock Indian Nation was one of the first Native American tribes encountered by European settlers. Their name means “people of the stone coast.” For thousands of years, they have called Shinnecock Neck, now known as Long Island, home.
People associate pre-American history with the Wampanoags and Pilgrims, but Shinnecock people had contact with English settlers as early as 1640, said Shinnecock President Lisa Gorey.
The tribe of 1,500 people has fought for nearly 390 years to preserve its territory and traditions amid land loss, poverty, marginalization, and efforts by Southampton residents to lure them away from their remaining 900 acres or at least prevent them from creating economic opportunities.
Southampton city officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The most recent attempt to block economic development in Shinnecock was in 2025, when the City of Southampton sued the Department of the Interior. The lawsuit seeks to reverse a decision that granted “restricted fee status” to land outside the preserve in ancestral Shinnecock territory.
The tribe wants to build a travel center on land along a busy highway on Long Island. Residents opposed the felling of trees and other construction activities.
Godel Wright, a member of the Shinnecock tribe and artist who carves wampum shells into handmade jewelry, said that when the colonists won the Revolutionary War, they promised to honor the treaties made between the tribe and Great Britain.
“We’ve fought every war since 1776,” he said.
But the Shinnecoxes learned in 1978 that despite assurances that the United States would respect their sovereignty, they had no formal relationship with the federal government.
“They kept the goalposts moving,” Gorey said.
Many tribal members, who had worked for years to apply for recognition, died in 2010 before the 32-year process to win or restore federal recognition. The Shinnecox family continues to struggle to build a self-sustaining economy despite constant opposition from their billionaire neighbors.
“It’s like when you have people come to your house, they start taking things out of your house and occupying it,” Wright said.
Goalie was more diplomatic. Despite the obstacles that stand in their way, Shinnekoks still live on their ancestral territory, she said.
“As we celebrate 250 years of freedom, we face many limitations when it comes to our own sovereignty,” Gorey said. “They didn’t make it easy for us.”
In recent years, Shinnecock has participated in the Fourth of July parade in a village near Southampton.
“As we celebrate 250 years of freedom, we face many limitations when it comes to our own sovereignty,” Gorey said. “They didn’t make it easy for us.”
California tribal nation undergoes cultural renaissance
On the other side of the continent, the tribal nations of central and southern California dealt with the first contact with European settlers, the Spanish.
The first Spanish expedition to California occurred in 1542, and Gaspar de Portola and the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra traversed the coastal lands some 220 years later. Soon Catholic missions and Spanish ranchers sprouted, first attracting and later enslaving the local indigenous people.
The tribe describes the last of three waves of European invasions as the most brutal, nearly 85 years after Serra rang his first missionary bell in San Diego in 1769.
“By the time the U.S. got to California, they were very good at removing tribesmen,” said Telia Smith, a member of the Tres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, a tribe that lives in the Coachella Valley, southeast of Palm Springs.
According to Benjamin Madeley’s American Genocide: The Catastrophe of the United States and the California Indians, 1846-1873, during the 19th century California’s Native American population declined by approximately 80% from 150,000 to 30,000 during a government-sanctioned Native American removal campaign. Madley, who teaches history at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that many people took part in the genocide, including vigilantes, state militia volunteers, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen and California’s governor.
According to his book, the state and federal governments spent at least $1.7 million on campaigns against California’s indigenous peoples.
“Between the missions, the Mexicans, and the gold rush, I can’t believe we’re still here,” Smith said.
Despite efforts by three nations to genocide or assimilate California Native Americans, the peoples “Their culture has survived and is thriving after a cultural renaissance,” said Smith, editor of News from Native California, a magazine that chronicles the art, culture and stories of California’s tribes.
Bird singing, a long-standing dance tradition in Southern California, the Southwest, and southern Nevada, is more popular than ever.
“There are thousands of bird singers and dancers right now,” Smith said.
Smith, who describes herself as a supporter of “California Indian First,” said she will continue to work to raise awareness.
“When we talk about Indians,” Smith says, “we talk about Indians.” “250 years is not a long time.”
Carissa Wadick covers America’s 250th anniversary on USA TODAY. She can be reached at kwaddick@usatoday.com.
Debra Kroll reports on indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West for the Arizona Republic. To reach the crawl, debra.krol@azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter. @debkrol Bluesky at @debkrol.bsky.social.
