{"id":2655741,"date":"2026-09-08T07:28:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-smithsonian-has-no-business-saying-america-is-built-on-stolen-land\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T07:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:35:36","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-smithsonian-has-no-business-saying-america-is-built-on-stolen-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-smithsonian-has-no-business-saying-america-is-built-on-stolen-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Smithsonian Has No Business Saying America Is Built On &#8216;Stolen Land&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-smithsonian-has-no-business-saying-america-is-built-on-stolen-land%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2655741&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Congressional hearings highlighted ongoing controversies surrounding the smithsonian Institution&#8217;s portrayal of American history,particularly relating to land acknowledgments and narratives about Native American history. Congressman Tim Burchett criticized Smithsonian Director Anthea Hartig for her repeated land acknowledgments that suggest Native tribes currently own the land, implying that such views amount to Americans \u201cillegally occupying their own country.\u201d Hartig\u2019s responses and emphasis on the complexity of land acknowledgments were contrasted with concerns that the Smithsonian\u2019s narrative is not neutral or unbiased.<\/p>\n<p>Critics argue that the Smithsonian\u2019s depiction of U.S. history, including claims of genocide against Native Americans-explicitly stated in some exhibits-is politically charged and skirts legal definitions. The narrative of \u201cstolen land,\u201d promoted at institutions and by organizations like the NEA,is seen by some as a weaponized interpretation aimed at de-legitimizing American foundational history. Historical examples demonstrate that land transfers among Native tribes and settlers were frequently enough complex and involve mutual conflicts, challenging the simplified \u201cstolen land\u201d story.<\/p>\n<p>The critique concludes with a proposed choice land acknowledgment that celebrates America&#8217;s founders, settlers, veterans, and Native allies who engaged in nation-building, emphasizing a more appreciative and less contentious remembrance of American history as it was shaped thru diverse contributions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Congressman Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., began the first of two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whats-next-great-awakening-or-great-reset\/\" title=\"What\u2019s Next? Great Awakening or Great Reset?\">congressional hearings<\/a> on problems at the Smithsonian Institution by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/delia-ramirez-calls-on-kristi-noem-to-be-subpoenaed\/\" title=\"Delia Ramirez calls on Kristi Noem to be subpoenaed\">playing video clips<\/a> of Anthea Hartig, the Director of the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of American History (NMAH) repeating land acknowledgements as she opened various museum events. Director Hartig would thank specific tribes and express gratitude for \u201cthe opportunity to work and live in their territories\u201d or give thanks to the \u201cfirst peoples on whose land we gather today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Note that Hartig did not say that NMAH events in say, California or Washington DC, occurred on land <em>previously<\/em> inhabited by American Indians, but on land that is <em>presentl<\/em>y on \u201ctheir territory.\u201d Congressman Burchett stated that logically this means that Hartig believes that Americans are \u201cillegally occupying their own country.\u201d Considering her viewpoint, Burchett asked Hartig: \u201cI\u2019m wondering have you ever planned on donating any of your personal property or any of the property of the Smithsonian to any of these tribes?\u201d Hartig replied, \u201cI don\u2019t believe that is pertinent to the conversation, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the hearing and during her leadership of the Smithsonian\u2019s premier history museum, Director Hartig has emphasized that issues such as land acknowledgments and even the question of \u201cloving America\u201d are \u201ccomplicated.\u201d No doubt the issue of land acknowledgments is \u201ccomplicated,\u201d but not in the manner that the current leadership of the Smithsonian maintains.<\/p>\n<p>Smithsonian leaders including the Secretary, Lonnie Bunch, and American history museum Director Anthea Hartig consistently claim that they are presenting a nuanced, neutral, unbiased narrative of America\u2019s story to our citizens and foreign visitors. However, the story the Smithsonian tells of the history between the American republic and the Indian nations of North America is anything but nuanced, neutral, or unbiased. For example, a Smithsonian video (\u201cThe Indian Problem\u201d) explicitly states that the United States committed genocide against American Indians.<\/p>\n<p>Genocide is legally defined by the UN genocide treaty as the deliberate, intentional, planned extermination of a particular \u201cnational, ethnic, racial, or religious group.\u201d For genocide to exist there must be an \u201cintent to destroy\u201d the group. In the Smithsonian video, an exhibit curator declares: \u00a0\u201cWe don\u2019t make the case that there was genocide. We know that there was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On July 4, 2026 the White House issued a scathing critique of the Smithsonian (\u201cSaving America\u2019s Story\u201d) that denounced the museum\u2019s leaders for reframing \u201cAmerica\u2019s founding as a fundamentally oppressive and genocidal effort to take Native American\u2019s land and oppress their culture and peoples.\u201d The Smithsonian \u201callege[s] that the U.S. rests on stolen land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cstolen land\u201d narrative is closely tied to the promotion of land acknowledgements. This interpretation has become dominant in America\u2019s universities, cultural institutions, and schools. The largest teachers\u2019 union, the National Education Association (NEA) developed a guide for land acknowledgments: \u201cDon\u2019t sugarcoat the past. Use terms like genocide, ethnic cleansing, stolen land \u2026 to reflect actions taken by colonizers.\u201d   <\/p>\n<p>The \u201cstolen land\/land acknowledgement\u201d symbiosis is not an unbiased, nuanced, good faith historical interpretation, but rather it is a crude weaponized concept. Its purpose is to \u201cproblematize\u201d our founding (to use Anthea Hartig\u2019s own language) and, in the process, de-legitimize historic America. This is all part of the effort to fundamentally transform our nation.   <\/p>\n<p>Let us examine the \u201cstolen land\u201d narrative historically. Who stole land from whom? For instance, the Lakota Sioux claim the Black Hills of South Dakota as their sacred land. They even successfully sued the U.S. government before the Supreme Court in 1980 and were awarded compensation, but they refused any payment, insisting that they wanted the land instead. Justice William Rehnquist in his dissent while criticizing the U.S. government\u2019s \u201cless than admirable tactics\u201d in the Black Hills noted \u201cthe Indians were not lacking their share of villainy either.\u201d Indeed, around 1776 the Lakota Sioux arrived in the Black Hills and took (stole) the land from the Cheyenne and the Crow. Earlier the Cheyenne had driven out (or stolen) this same land from the Kiowa. <\/p>\n<p>Yes, history and the issue of stolen land is complicated. Since we are Americans celebrating our 250<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary as an independent republic, I suggest a different type of land acknowledgement is in order. Something like the following:<\/p>\n<p><em>We acknowledge and are grateful for those Americans who have gone before us. So here is to the Pilgrams and the pioneers; the settlers and the homesteaders; the farmers and the ranchers; the frontiersmen and the cowboys; the teachers and the preachers; the schoolmarms and the clergy and the sheriffs and judges\u2212who brought Judeo-Christian civilization and law and order to the men of the Westward expansion; to the Oneida, Choctaw, and the Pawnee warriors, who in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the post-Civil War West respectively, fought with the United States and against our enemies; to the visionaries of Manifest Destiny and the statesmen and soldiers who made it happen. They all fulfilled Thomas Jefferson\u2019s dream expressed in a Christmas Day 1780 letter to George Rogers Clark of an \u201cempire of liberty\u201d across the continent of North America. To all of them, we are grateful.  <\/em> <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      John Fonte is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of &#8220;Sovereignty or Submission.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Burchett questions Smithsonian&#8217;s land acknowledgments, calling them biased<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4404,"featured_media":2655742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-05-at-4.35.23-PM-1-1024x682.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[4919,50483,36694],"class_list":["post-2655741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-history","tag-land-rights","tag-native-american"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-05-at-4.35.23-PM-1-1024x682.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2655741"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2655754,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655741\/revisions\/2655754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2655742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2655741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2655741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2655741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}