New Ken Burns series features Indigenous nations' role in American Revolution

Ken Burns’s new documentary series includes history often left out of textbooks: the economic and diplomatic roles sovereign Indigenous nations had in the American Revolution.

The American Revolution, airing this week on PBS, highlights the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in Episode 1 as Benjamin Franklin's inspiration for union among 13 British colonies in North America, 20 years before the revolution.

“They wouldn't do it. They didn't want to give up any autonomy, and so they lost the lesson of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Tuscarora, Oneida and Mohawk people who had figured this out centuries ago,” Ken Burns told CBC Indigenous. 

The 12-hour series depicting the bloody clash for Indigenous land involving more than two dozen nations, European as well as Native American, was almost a decade in the making. Indigenous consultants worked on the project.

Tuscarora historian Rick Hill said he's hesitant to watch "because I'm tired of being disappointed by these multimillion dollar productions."

But Burns urges people to watch the entire series before judging it.

The prolific documentarian known for series like The Civil War, The Vietnam War and The National Parks: America's Best Idea, said his desire to tell stories with the accuracy they deserve is in his DNA. 

Burns said his grandparents found Native American arrowheads, flints and other tools on their honeymoon rather than the intended Civil War artifacts they were looking for.

He said growing up, he had a map of the U.S. above his bed with the territories of 300 Indigenous nations, the original inhabitants of the land, at the forefront.

“George Washington uses that term ‘empire’ almost all the time," Burns said, a presumption that ignores the sovereignty of peoples already living there.

Burns said it’s interesting this history isn’t taught in schools. 

“I don't think engaging the Native American stories is complicated, it’s just required," he said.

"You can't understand this story without telling the stories of Native people.”

The many portraits of Kanien'kehá:ka leader Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) featured in the documentary are indicative of Brant’s historical stature and command, Burns said, belying the term ‘savage’ Thomas Jefferson used in the Declaration of Independence.