Domination Chronicles: Colonists, Settlers, Invaders, Expansionists, Immigrants

What do we call the people who came onto Native lands under claims of empire, settlement, expansion, and law? In this episode, Newcomb and d’Errico critique the language used in a contemporary article about the Indian Removal Act and the Muscogee Nation, asking how words such as colonists, settlers, invaders, expansionists, and immigrants shape historical understanding.

The discussion shows that naming is never merely descriptive. Each term carries assumptions about legitimacy, movement, property, and belonging. When histories of removal are narrated through the language of settlement or liberty, domination can be softened or hidden. The hosts return to Johnson v. McIntosh and the legal world that made Native lands available to U.S. expansion. This episode is a useful exercise in linguistic discipline. It asks readers to notice when familiar civic vocabulary makes invasion sound ordinary and when the “rule of law” becomes a weapon against Native nations.

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