Author Chris Newell sat at a children’s table in the New Haven Public Library, describing the inspiration for his new book for young readers called, “If You Lived During the American Revolution.”
“I was a good student in high school,” Newell said. “I did well. I graduated near [the] top of my class.” Newell, of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, went to Dartmouth College, where he took a course in U.S. history.
“By the mid-term I had a C-minus,” he said. “And that’s because I was so frustrated with the content because of what was being left out.”
This author-talk was part of a conference called First America: The Legacies of the Declaration of Independence for Native Nations. It was organized by The Yale Group for the Study of Native America and The NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project.
As the nation prepares to mark July 4th and America’s 250th anniversary, celebrations are planned to commemorate the story of the birth of a nation. The Yale conference, held earlier this year, explored that story through a less-familiar lens. The focus was on the contradictions and complexities of the Revolutionary era for the people who have lived here for generations – Native American communities.
Yale historian Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) was a conference organizer. He’s author of the award-winning book “The Rediscovery of America, Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History.”
“The American Revolution offers us an origin narrative and history that we should see ourselves in,” Blackhawk said. “And here in the Northeast we have to see ourselves in a world that has long been characterized by Indigenous peoples and Indigenous nations. These communities have been left out of so many narratives of American history that it's really a disservice not only to them but ultimately to our national consciousness.”
Back at the New Haven Public Library, Newell read from his book. It tells the story of the American Revolution and includes rarely heard voices: of enslaved Black people, as well as Indigenous peoples who, for thousands of years, occupied the land English settlers sought to claim. Newell asked the group if there were questions.
11-year old Flora Dong raised her hand, and asked: “Why did you call them Indians and not Native Americans?”
“That’s an extremely good question,” Newell said. “So, the words Indians, Native Americans, American Indians, I kind of use them interchangeably because I was born in a Passamaquoddy-speaking home and so I was always taught that we are Passamaquoddy people. We are not Native Americans; we are a specific tribe. We have a tribally-specific culture. And we are a nation in and of ourselves. And that’s the lesson that I would pass on is that you try to know people by the tribe, not as Native Americans.”
A few blocks away on Yale’s campus, there were roundtable discussions with scholars, archivists and museum professionals. Topics ranged from democracy to land dispossession.
There was also the screening of a film by the Mohegan tribe. Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel co-wrote the film and is a Mohegan tribal historian.
“We’re proud to share the story, not only of our very important involvement in the Revolution, in which the first person to die in the Revolution who was an Indigenous soldier was a Mohegan. That’s important,” she said “But more important even are the rights and freedoms lost by our women because we were leaders.”
And 2026 is a special moment, many at the conference said, to reflect on the legacies of America’s formative years and how the stories we tell resonate 250 years later.
“This is not just about recognizing or privileging Native Americans,” said Colin Calloway, a Dartmouth College history professor.
“This is about getting America’s story right.”
The conference featured a concerted effort to focus on what freedom and opportunity mean to a variety of communities and their experience of being part of the U.S., said Mack Scott (Narragansett Indian Tribe), a visiting assistant professor at Brown University.
“The national mythology wants to tell this very celebratory story, and that’s great, right? There’s a lot to celebrate,” he said. “But not at the expense of ignoring or erasing other experiences that are also part of the 250th that need to be told.”
Alexander Dedam (First Nation Mi’kmaq), a graduate student at Southern Connecticut State University, said it’s important for Native peoples to become more visible in the American story.
“Because oftentimes people see that Native American history ceased around the American Revolution,” he said, “but it's been an ongoing continuum.”
