Hey everyone, you're listening to Code Switch from NPR. I'm B.A. Parker. Now, I've always had complicated

feelings about the Fourth of July. I mean, that's no shocker here. I am a black woman in America.

But there can be this push and pull between a sense of patriotism at an Orioles game and the full-on self-awareness

that when the Star-Spangled banner was originally written, I was not who was envisioned.

I'm still a sucker for a hot dog and fireworks, though.

And with America's 250th, the birthday coming up, there's been unnecessary reflecting on our history.

Reporter and friend of the show, Rebecca Nagel, has a new podcast series called First America,

which sets out to reinsert native people into American history where they belong.

There is no romanticism over the Declaration of Independence and its words, liberty for all.

But rather, a condemnation of a slur for indigenous people that sellies that historical document.

Rebecca discusses the roots of the American Revolution and the colonist's relationship to

native people and native land.

She went to Minnesota to tell the story of a place called Fort Snelling, but she came

back with so much more.

So here it is the first episode of First America.

You can find more episodes anywhere you get your podcasts.

All right. Enjoy.

Where do you want us to park?

I think you have to park in here.

The port is that way?

Yeah, the port's that way.

On a cold day in January, I visited Fort Snelling in Minneapolis.

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