Watchlist: ‘First America’

By Kamiah Koch

Social media/digital journalism

A 2021 Watchlist shared a popular Indigenous podcast called “This Land,” a podcast hosted by Cherokee Nation citizen Rebecca Nagle.

Now in 2026, the third season is about to release Monday, June 22, with a new name: “First America.”

“If we don’t understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won’t understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself,” a voice said in the podcast’s trailer.

In “First America,” Nagle’s interviews with Indigenous historians reveal a story in which the Native American resistance actually shaped the American independence movement, more than history has often told.

“I keep hearing people say, ‘This isn’t who we are as a country,’” Nagle said. “But what I have learned in the last year is that U.S. history tells a different story.”

With the sound of drumming and singing in the background, the trailer uses a soundbite of a Native man telling the darker version of America’s origin story.

“150 years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us,” he said. “Now they are hunting down immigrants to deport them.”

On the podcast’s website, it notes that this story is not intended to simply add another “blemish” to America’s already speckled past; rather it will compare what we saw in the United States in 1776, to what we see in America today.

“I want us to know how we got here,” Nagle concludes in the podcast’s three-minute trailer. “Because otherwise we will never find our way out.”

You can listen to “First America” wherever you listen to podcasts or find links to listening platforms at https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/first-america.