Following are responses from Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief) Michell Hicks, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Ugvwiyuhi Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation, to a tweet (right) from Ann Coulter.
Ugvwiyuhi Michell Hicks, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Ann Coulter’s embarrassing statement issued on July 6th, 2025, on X, that “we didn’t kill enough Indians” is hateful, dangerous, and completely unacceptable. It is genocidal rhetoric that glorifies violence against Indigenous peoples. What makes it even more dangerous is that she used her public platform, one that reaches millions, to spread this message to the world.
With any platform comes responsibility. Ann Coulter chose to use hers to promote hate, to dehumanize Native people, and to repeat the same language and thinking that fueled genocide against our ancestors.
When people with influence use their platform to normalize violence, it emboldens those who harbor hate. It stokes division and it places Indigenous people, and other communities targeted by hate, at greater risk of harm.
Our people know the cost of this kind of thinking. Our ancestors were forced from their homelands. Families were torn apart during the forced boarding school era, and lives were lost, all because of the same mindset Ann Coulter chose to amplify. Yet despite every attempt to erase us, we are still here. We have survived and we have prospered.
We will always defend our sovereignty, our culture, and our identity. Our sovereignty is the foundation of who we are. Our identity has withstood centuries of efforts to destroy it. We are sovereign because we have fought for it. Many Indigenous people served and died in defense of this country, at higher rates of any other group. For Ann Coulter to use her freedom to insult the very people who have sacrificed so much is disgraceful.
We will always speak out when the safety and dignity of our people are threatened. I call on all people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to speak up when they see hate like this. Do not let it go unanswered. Each one of us has the power to push back against harmful words and actions, to choose respect over hate, and to stand up for what is right.
Together, our voices are stronger than any message of division.
Ugvwiyui Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation
Ann Coulter’s post this evening on X that “we didn’t kill enough Indians,” is beyond abhorrent. It is dangerous hate speech designed to inflict damage on a marginalized community and designed arose support in the deepest darkest gutters of social media. Although it is tempting to decline to dignify her regressive attack on Native Americans, I cannot and will not. This is no time for timidity.
Coulter’s statement, on its face, is a despicable rhetorical shot trained on the First Peoples of this continent, designed to dehumanize and diminish us and our ancestors and puts us at risk of further injury. We have faced enough of that since this country’s founding. Such rhetoric has aided and abetted the destruction of tribes, their life ways, languages and cultures, the violation of treaty rights, violence, oppression, suppression and dispossession. It should not be lost on any of us that Coulter’s lament that “we didn’t kill enough Indians” takes place against the backdrop of our relatively low average life expectancies, high suicide rates and the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous people, just to name a few aspects of our continuing struggle.
The cruelty of Coulter’s comments are, of course, self-evident to decent human beings from all quarters. We have made much progress in the United States as it relates to federal Indian policy. Conservatives, liberals, Republicans and Democrats have had a hand in advancing this cause, which is so special to me as Chief of the nation’s largest tribe, particularly over the last half century. Coulter’s statement tonight would be extreme even by 19th century standards (though I believe President Andrew Jackson would like and share her post if he lived among us today.)
Though her star power has faded over the decades, Ann Coulter remains an opinion leader in the United States and beyond. Her account on “X,” formerly Twitter, has 2.1 million followers. Her post has been shared over 1.4 million times as of this writing. She is a published author and appears frequently in television media. Her opinion, though peppered over the years with vitriolic attacks on marginalized populations, matters.
It is not simply that Coulter chose to attack Native Americans that moves me to speak out this evening. It is my deep concern that these sorts of attacks aimed at minorities and other marginalized populations in the country is at risk of being normalized. Her attack does not take place in a vacuum and it is not an outlier. It occurs at a time attacks on marginalized populations seem to be on repeat, used to score political points, to advance policy agendas, and sometimes to scare people to advance all of that and more. The country frequently seems on the verge of political violence. Coulter’s post implicitly encourages it.
We can get used to the frequent attacks and watch silently as this group and that group is dehumanized and diminished. Hatred in the public will become white noise, accepted as “just the way it is.” Alternatively, we can speak out against it.
What Ann Coulter said is heartless, vicious and should be repudiated by people of good faith regardless of political philosophy or party. Some things are simply wrong and we cannot validate it through our silence. I will not and cannot chase every hateful social media comment aimed at Native Americans. But, at a moment when I remain optimistic that people of good will across parties, faiths, philosophies, regions, races, political status can work to unify the country, denouncing Ann Coulter’s regret that we “did not kill enough Indians” is surely the right thing to do. Please join me.
