DoI_ACTUALA replica of an original copy of the Declaration of Independence is on display at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul for the next two weeks.

 MPR’s Midmorning show today featured two experts talking about "… how understanding of the document evolved over time."

I didn’t catch the first 30 minutes but submitted this question to the show via MPR’s Send a Question feature. It didn’t get used, as they probably ran out of time.

What’s the background on the inclusion of the phrase "the merciless Indian savages" in the Declaration? How did it help shape our country’s attitudes about Native Americans over the years?

Here’s the complete sentence from the full DOI text, part of the list of "… repeated injuries and usurpations" by the King of Great Britain:

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

I didn’t know until a few months ago that this sentence was included in the Declaration of Independence. I’m guessing most Minnesotans aren’t aware of it either.

Here’s some background on it, from the Footnote.com site:

footnotecom The Declaration of Independence accused King George III. of unleashing "merciless Indian Savages" against innocent men, women, and children. The image of ferocious warriors propelled into action by a tyrannical monarch fixed in memory and imagination the Indians’ role in the Revolution and justified their subsequent treatment. But many Indian Nations tried to stay out of the conflict, some sided with the Americans, and those who fought with the British were not the king’s pawns: they allied with the Crown as the best hope of protecting their homelands from the encroachments of American colonists and land speculators. The British government had afforded Indian lands a measure of protection by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which had attempted to restrict colonial expansion beyond the Appalachian Mountains, and had alienated many American colonists. Indians knew that the Revolution was a contest for Indian land as well as for liberty.

…

Indians fought in the Revolution for Indian liberties and Indian homelands, not for the British empire. But the image of Indian participation presented in the Declaration of Independence prevailed: most Americans believed that Indians had backed monarchy and tyranny. A nation conceived in liberty need feel no remorse about dispossessing and expelling those who had fought against its birth.