Introduction

Among the 27 grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence, one line stands apart in its brutality:

“He [the King] has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

This sentence is the only explicit reference to a non-European group in the Declaration—and it describes them not as people, but as violent obstacles to progress. Far from incidental, this language reflected a settler worldview that saw Native peoples not as fellow human beings, but as threats to be removed.

This page explores how that phrase both justified and foreshadowed centuries of displacement, extermination, and denial.

The Language of Dehumanization

The phrase “merciless Indian Savages” is not a casual insult. It encodes a worldview:

• “Merciless” implies moral inferiority and inherent cruelty.

• “Savages” classifies Indigenous peoples outside the bounds of civilization and law.

• No tribe is named. No cause is explained. All Native peoples are grouped into a single faceless enemy.

This kind of language was used to legitimize extreme violence, just as slaveholders used racial categories to justify enslavement.

The fact that this language appears in a founding document—one that claims to speak for “mankind”—reveals a deep contradiction: the Declaration universalizes white settler suffering while erasing the humanity of Indigenous nations.

Whose Land Was It?

By 1776, the Thirteen Colonies had already pushed deep into Native territories:

• Settlers had violated treaties with nations such as the Iroquois, Shawnee, and Cherokee.

• Frontier conflict was ongoing—some of it provoked by colonial encroachment.

• The Proclamation of 1763, issued by the British Crown, had attempted to limit westward expansion beyond the Appalachians. Many colonists resented this, seeing it as a block to profit.

The Declaration flips the narrative: it accuses the Crown of “bringing on” Native attacks, rather than acknowledging that the colonists were the ones advancing into sovereign lands.

In this way, Indigenous resistance is rebranded as savagery—a rhetorical move that laid the groundwork for later policies of removal and extermination.

The Founders and Indian Policy

Many signers of the Declaration had direct stakes in Indigenous land:

• George Washington held land grants in the Ohio Valley and would later launch campaigns against Native confederacies.

• Thomas Jefferson, as President, would oversee both land purchases (e.g. the Louisiana Purchase) and forced removals.

• Benjamin Franklin once advocated for fair treaties but ultimately supported settler expansion.

For many of the Founding Fathers, Indigenous peoples were a barrier to real estate—not fellow nations, not human equals, but territorial challenges to be managed.

A Legacy of Erasure and Violence

The mindset expressed in 1776 was not isolated. It shaped American law and policy for generations:

• The Indian Removal Act of 1830 (signed by Andrew Jackson) forced entire nations off their homelands, leading to the Trail of Tears.

• The U.S. military carried out dozens of campaigns framed as “pacification,” including Wounded Knee(1890), which killed hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children.

• Native religions, languages, and governance systems were outlawed or suppressed well into the 20th century.

All of this was made easier by one idea: they were “savages.” Once that label stuck, violence became not only permissible—but necessary.

Conclusion: Liberty by Elimination

While the Declaration called for liberty and justice, it also sanctioned conquest. The erasure of Native nations was not an accident of history—it was part of the founding logic. By portraying Indigenous peoples as less than human, the signers justified a new empire rising on their ashes.

The question remains:

Can a nation born from such erasure ever fully acknowledge its past?