The 27th Grievance

"The most famous text of the Revolution culminates not with an idealistic wish but with a derogatory indictment, legal as well as moral. The drafters drew upon nascent doctrines of international law and made England's incitement of "Savages" the ultimate unjust act against a "Free and Independent" people. In this so-called Age of Reason, Native Americans were charged with having none at all. They were not only lawless but also irrational, incapable of self-governance, and lacking moral capacity."

"This one-dimensional vision of Native Americans was new. Having lived alongside Native communities for generations-during war, peace, and constant trade-the colonists had ample evidence that they were capable of self-government. Native people maintained distinct customs, laws, and forms of sovereignty, many of them in defiance of both British and colonial authorities. Long before the arrival of Europeans, the nations of the Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee) Confederacy centralized political, military, and diplomatic practices."

The Declaration of Independence pairs a universalist prologue asserting rights with 27 specific grievances that culminate in charging the King with inciting "merciless Indian Savages" to attack frontiersmen. That grievance framed Native Americans as lawless, irrational, incapable of self-government, and morally deficient. Colonists had extensive, long-term contact with Native nations and observed enduring forms of self-governance, distinct laws, customs, and sovereign practices. Many Native polities resisted British and colonial authority. The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy exemplified centralized political, military, and diplomatic organization, which contemporaries recognized as durable and effectively unified.

Read at The Atlantic