Obama Claims U.S. Not Born a Colonial Power

"America was not born as a colonial power."
-- Barack Obama in his interview on Tuesday with al-Arabiya

ROXANNE DUNBAR-ORTIZ
Author of the forthcoming Myth and Empire: Indigenous History of the United States,
Dunbar-Ortiz said today in response to Obama's claim: "The United
States was founded as a European settler state, with maps and plans
already prepared to colonize the continent coast to coast, expanding
from the 13 colonies of the founding state. Indeed the U.S. was the
first state born as a colonial power, unique in the vast territories it
brutally conquered, occupied, and administered, crushing over 300
indigenous nations, force-marching hundreds of thousands east of the
Mississippi out of their homelands, crowding them into 'Indian
Territory' (Oklahoma), along the way annexing half the Republic of
Mexico. Plantation agriculture, worked by enslaved Africans, drove U.S.
territorial conquests during the first century, creating the economic
base for industrial capitalism that would soon dominate the world."

Dunbar-Ortiz's books include Roots of Resistance: History of Land Tenure in New Mexico, Indians of the Americas and The Great Sioux Nation. She is professor emeritus in the Department of Ethnic Studies at California State University East Bay in Hayward, California.

Al-Arabiya interview text and video are available online. [above excerpt at 9:45]