During his inauguration speech on January 20, 2025, Donald Trump used a phrase that chilled the soul. “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.” Trump may have been alluding to a future in outer space, but he’s really talking about the past, right here, on this continent. “Manifest destiny” was coined by American writer John L. O’Sullivan in 1845, expressing the longstanding and racist belief that the U.S. is culturally, religiously and socially superior to all — a nation chosen by God to inherit the Earth. The primary result of that relentless expansionism was the displacement and genocide of Indigenous Peoples.

Under Trump — who also claimed he was “saved by God to make America great again” — this mission is back with a vengeance. Now, Canadians can experience a taste of Indigenous life with the president’s threats to turn Canada into the 51st state — a clear violation of Canadian sovereignty, a sovereignty that relies on relationships with Indigenous Peoples via treaties, Indigenous rights and a complicated array of laws.

Canadians may want to ask Indigenous nations how manifest destiny takes place, feels — and what happens afterwards. Here’s a hint: it’s full of righteousness, very violent, painful and cruel. And it comes in cycles. This continent has endured waves of aggression against Indigenous Peoples and their territories, followed by a periodic break — with some tiny progress made — before another self-appointed “saviour” rises and the violence starts again.

In my lifetime, Pierre Trudeau’s 1969 White Paper threatened to eliminate treaties and assimilate Indigenous communities. Then Brian Mulroney was forced into a sort of benevolence with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples after the failed Meech Lake accord and the Oka crisis. Jean Chrétien threatened to impose the stiffest controls in history, while Paul Martin promised to empower First Nations governments. Stephen Harper’s reign saw some of the worst erasures of Indigenous rights in history, followed by Justin Trudeau, the most progressive prime minister Indigenous Peoples ever had. 

In the ’70s, opposition to Trudeau Sr.’s White Paper birthed Indigenous-led civil rights movements. In the ’80s, fierce resistance in boardrooms and courtrooms by Indigenous visionaries resulted in the enshrinement of Indigenous rights in the Constitution. The ’90s saw Elijah Harper’s “no” to Meech Lake and the inspiring territorial resistances at Oka and elsewhere — culminating in a landmark commission examining Indigenous experiences in Canada. The 2000s witnessed brilliant and resilient residential school survivors demanding to be heard — leading to the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

To counter resource development under Harper in the 2010s, Idle No More — the largest and most provocative Indigenous-led civil rights movement in modern Canadian history — saw activists take to malls, city streets and government buildings to resist using dance, song and ceremony.

It’s fair to feel anxiety due to the haphazard, inconsistent and nonsensical approach of Trump: his threats, aggression and real-life harm. But a “saviour” like him is nothing new. He’s after the same thing men like him have always wanted: money, power and fame. Kinda boring, really.

I’m more interested in the forces that confront invasion, resist and make history — how people from all walks of life can join together in remarkable, dynamic and inspiring ways.

Niigaanwewidam Sinclair (@niigaanwewidam.bsky.social) is an Anishinaabe writer, editor and professor at the University of Manitoba. He is the Governor General award-winning author of Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre.