Matt Walsh

The events that shape the country matter.

And it all can be very useful.

One group that found the Trail of Tears narrative useful were the thousands of professional activists who went to Washington in the early 1970s and held a week-long occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building.

Protesters barricaded themselves inside with furniture, fashioned makeshift weapons, issued defiant statements to the press.

One leader reportedly told The New York Times that Indians had taken a vow to fight to the death, while another declared war on the United States.

Within days, President Nixon sent representatives to hammer out a compromise.

He granted immunity to the militants and paid for their trips home.

He signed legislation that handed millions of acres of land over to Indian tribes, particularly in Alaska and New Mexico.

He lent his support to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which would eventually become law.

The legislation allowed Indian tribes to take over the administration of some federal programs, which was a major coup for the so-called American Indian movement.

The Trail of Tears is often presented as the ultimate symbol of American injustice, but it is just one part in a much larger body of pervasive myths that have shaped our understanding of American history.

These myths, amplified in schools and media,

Almost always portray American Indians as peaceful, noble victims, stewards of the land, overwhelmed by an unstoppable wave of imperial European and American forces armed with superior technology.

Any violence on their part, we're told, is merely a reaction provoked by white people.

We're told that as Americans we live on stolen land and that the U.S.

government perpetrated a literal genocide against native nations.

These narratives are not only wrong, but they're also a form of intellectual warfare designed to dishonor our ancestors and to foster a sense of collective guilt that would undermine American confidence and unity.

And well, the thing is, it's working.

One poll sponsored by the Manhattan Institute found that 45% of high school students were taught in class that America was built on stolen land and another 22% heard it from an adult at the school.

Over the course of this video, we will dismantle one by one