Millions across the United States are gathering to celebrate a world-historic event: the birth of a settler colony which stands today as a mighty global empire. From its inception, this fledgling colony emerged onto the world stage as a prison house of nations: genocidal conquest and the dispossession of the continent’s original peoples secured the land base necessary for a new society to be erected atop the ashes of the old. This process of permanent war to repress the capacity of indigenous nations to reclaim their historic territory and national sovereignty remains a foundational pillar of U.S. dominance in the 21st century. Before long, the United States of America surpassed the empires of Europe to become the world’s preeminent military-industrial superpower, enabled not by the superiority of its values and principles, but by a global campaign of pillage, piracy, and plunder financed by the fruits of enslaved African labor harvested over the course of nearly three centuries.