Jeff Fynn-Paul

Saturday

Jeff Fynn-Paul

Does the Native American case for reparations add up?

From our UK edition

The University of Minnesota is at the centre of a battle for Native American reparations. The university sits on tens of thousands of acres of land that once belonged to indigenous tribes. That land was sold in the 1800s for a fraction of what it's worth today – and some think the university, which has an endowment of around $3.2 billion (£2.6 billion), should fork out to the descendants of those who once lived there. Minnesota is not alone. Cornell University in New York is facing demands to cough up. The University of Wisconsin at Madison also benefitted from land taken from 250 tribes following the signing of the Morrill Act by president Abraham Lincoln in 1862.

Sunday

Jeff Fynn-Paul

The myth of New World genocide

From our UK edition

Shortly before the coronation of Charles III, a group of indigenous leaders from around the commonwealth released a statement. They called on the King 'to acknowledge the horrific impacts on and legacy of genocide and colonisation of the indigenous and enslaved peoples,' including 'the oppression of our peoples, plundering of our resources, (and) denigration of our culture.' Charles was told to 'redistribute the wealth that underpins the crown back to the peoples from whom it was stolen.' Yet the argument that Britain should pony up for its historical sins is based on a number of rickety assumptions. One of these is that a substantial portion of the wealth of the UK, or the British Crown, derives from slavery or colonial exploitation.

Saturday

Friday

Jeff Fynn-Paul

Was America really ‘stolen’?

From our UK edition

15 min listen

Historian Jeff Fynn-Paul joins Freddy on this episode to discuss whether or not America was really 'stolen' from the Native Americans. Fynn-Paul writes about the issue in this week's Spectator.

Thursday

Jeff Fynn-Paul

The myth of the ‘stolen country’

From our UK edition

Last month, in the middle of the Covid panic, a group of first-year university students at the University of Connecticut were welcomed to their campus via a series of online ‘events’. At one event, students were directed to download an app for their phones. The app allowed students to input their home address, and it would piously inform them from which group of Native Americans their home had been ‘stolen’. ​We all know the interpretation of history on which this app is based. The United States was founded by a monumental act of genocide, accompanied by larceny on the grandest scale. Animated by racism and a sense of civilisational superiority, Columbus and his ilk sailed to the New World.