Kristeen Hernandez aka Lady2Soothe Follow @OurVoicesEcho
Only 23,545 plus counted of the 100 million 1st Nation Peoples Murdered
1300’s – Crow Creek Massacre ~ 486 Massacred
1325 – Chamberlain, South Dakota ~ 486 Massacred
1539 – executed Napituca Massacre ~ 200 Massacred
1540 – Mabila Massacre ~ 2.500 Massacred
1540 – Choctaw Massacred ~ 2,500 Massacred
1541 – Tiguex Massacres ~ 200 Massacred
1599 – Acoma Massacre ~ 800 Massacred
1601 – Sandia Mountains ~ 900 Massacred
1601 – Tompiro ~ 900 Massacred
1623 – Pamunkey Peace Talks ~ 250 Massacred
1637 – Mystic Massacre ~ 600-700 Massacred
1637 – Pequot Village Massacre ~ 600 Massacred
1643 – Pavonia Massacre ~ 129 Massacred
1644 – Pound Ridge Massacre ~ 500 Massacred
1675 – Great Swamp Massacre ~ 340 Massacred
1676 – Turner Falls Massacre ~ 100 plus Massacred
1676 – Narragansetts on Rhode Island ~ 126 Massacred
1689 – Zia Pueblo 600 Indians ~ killed 70 survivors enslaved
1692 – Candlemas Massacre ~ 75 killed 100 imprisoned
1704 – Apalachee Massacre ~ 1,000 dead 2,000 enslaved
1712 – Fox Indian Massacre ~ 1,000 Massacred
1713 – Fort Neoheroka ~ 1,000 – 1,200 Massacred
1724 – Norridgewock Massacre ~ 80 Massacred
1730 – Massacre at Fox Fort ~ 500 Massacred
1747 – Chama River 111 killed ~ 206 imprisoned
1755 – Draper’s Meadow massacre unreported number killed
1759 – St. Francis Raid ~ 30 Massacred
1763 – Killings by the Paxton Boys ~ 20 Massacred
1774 – Spanish Peaks 300 killed ~ 100 survivors enslaved
1777 – The Grave Creek Massacre ~ unreported number killed
1778 – Stockbridge Massacre ~ 40 Massacred
1781 – Long Run Massacre ~ 50 Massacred
1782 – Gnadenhütten Massacre ~ 100 Massacred
1805 – Canyon del Muerto ~ 115 Massacred
1813 – Hillabee Massacre ~ 65 Massacred
1813 – Autossee Massacre ~ 200 Massacred
1818 – Chehaw Affair ~ 10-50 Massacred
1824 – Fall Creek Massacre ~ 8 Massacred
1824 – Massacre of Indians ~ 9 Massacred
1826 – Dressing Point Massacre ~ 40-50 Massacred
1833 – Cutthroat Gap Massacre ~ 150 Massacred
1837 – Johnson Massacre ~ 20 plus Massacred
1840 – Council House Massacre ~ 128 Massacred
1840 – Colorado River ~ 140 killed 35 captured
1840 – Clear Lake Massacre ~ 150 Massacred
1846 – Sacramento River ~ 120-200 Massacred
1846 – Temecula massacre ~ 33-40 Massacred
1847 – Storming of Pueblo de Taos ~ 205 Massacred
1848 – Brazos River ~ 25 Massacred
1850 – Bloody Island Massacre ~ 60-100 Massacred
1851 – Old Shasta Town ~ 300 Massacred
1852 – Hynes Bay Massacre ~ 45 Massacred
1852 – Bridge Gulch Massacre ~ 150 Massacred
1852 – Wright Massacre ~ 41 Massacred
1853 – Howonquet Massacre ~ 70 Massacred
1853 – Yontoket Massacre ~ 480 Massacred
1853 – Achulet Massacre ~ 65 – 150 Massacred
1853 – “Ox” incident ~ unreported number killed
1854 – Nasomah Massacre ~ 16 Massacred
1854 – Chetco River Massacre 30 plus
1854 – Grattan Massacre ~ 4,000 Massacred
1855 – Klamath River Massacres ~ unreported number killed
1855 – Harney Massacre ~ 86 killed 70 imprisoned
1855 – Lupton Massacre ~ 23 Massacred
1855 – Little Butte Creek ~ 826 Massacred
1856 – Grande Ronde River Valley Massacre ~ 60 Massacred
1856 – Shingletown _ 20 Massacred
1857 – Spirit Lake Massacre ~ 40 killed 4 captured
1858 – Round Valley Massacres ~ 1,000 plus dead
1859 – Pit River ~ 70 Massacred
1859 – Chico Creek ~ 40 Massacred
1860 – Massacre at Bloody Rock ~ 65 Massacred
1860 – Indian Island Massacre ~ 200-250 Massacred
1860 – Pease River Massacre ~ unreported number killed
1861 – Horse Canyon Massacre ~ 240 Massacred
1861 – Gallinas Massacre ~ unreported number killed
1862 – Upper Station Massacre ~ 20 plus Massacred
1862 – Big Antelope Creek Massacre ~ 25 Massacred
1863 – Bear River Massacre ~ 280 Massacred
1863 – Keyesville Massacre ~ 35 Massacred
1863 – Mowry massacres ~ unreported number killed
1863 – Whitestone Massacre ~ 60 killed 300 to 400 wounded/captured
1864 – Cottonwood ~ 20 Massacred
1864 – Massacre at Bloody Tanks ~ 19 Massacred
1864 – Oak Run Massacre ~ 300 Massacred
1864 – Skull Valley Massacre ~ unreported number killed
1864 – Sand Creek Massacre ~ 160 Massacred
1865 – Mud Lake Massacre ~ 32 Massacred
1865 – Owens Lake Massacre ~ 40 Massacred
1865 – Three Knolls Massacre ~ unreported number killed
1866 – Circleville Massacre ~ 19 Massacred
1867 – Aquarius Mountains ~ 23 Massacred
1868 – Campo Seco ~ 33 Massacred
1868 – Battle of Washita River 140
1870 – Marias Massacre ~ 173 Massacred
1871 – Kingsley Cave Massacre ~ 30 Massacred
1871 – Camp Grant Massacre ~ 144 killed 29 children sold into slavery
1872 – Skeleton Cave Massacre ~ 76 Massacred
1873 – Cypress Hills Massacre ~ 20 Massacred
1875 – Sappa Creek Massacre ~ 27 Massacred
1877 – Big Hole Massacre ~ 89 Massacred
1879 – Fort Robinson Massacre ~ 77 Massacred
1890 – Buffalo Gap Massacre ~ several wagon-loads killed
1890 – Stronghold ~ 75 Massacred
1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre ~ 250 Massacred
1911 – Last Massacre ~ 8 Massacred
Frank Waln ~ No matter where you live in America, you’re living on occupied land that Indigenous peoples’ were murdered for…
Indigenous1st Nation People are the only race in North America who must LEGALLY PROVE RACE with European Enforced Government Documentation. No other race of people who came to the America’s has to prove their race, ethnicity, nationality or identity; Not Blacks, Not German, Irish or Jewish Whites, Not Asians or anyone including your pigment lacking forefathers.
From the onset, Christian Europeans arriving on Indigenous lands there is an estimate of 50 to 60 million 1st Nations peoples killed by these Christians. With another 100 to 120 million wiped out by smallpox brought with the Christians.
Jamestown VA, the first settlement, its inhabitants were starving to death because they didn’t know how to grow their own food. They had spent most of their days digging random holes in the ground in search of gold instead of planting crops. By the beginning of 1610, the settlers at Jamestown were dining on dogs, cats, rats, and mice. Some colonists dug corpses out of their graves to eat them.” One man murdered his pregnant wife and “salted her for his food.” The first Virginians were so desperate they went from taking Native American slaves to offering themselves up as slaves to the 1st Nation peoples’ in exchange for food.
The 1st Nation people didn’t hate Europeans just for the clouds of shit-smelling awfulness they dragged around behind them. Missionaries met *Indians* who thought Europeans were “physically weak, sexually untrustworthy, atrociously ugly” and “possessed little intelligence in comparison to themselves.” The Europeans didn’t do much to debunk the comparison in the physical beauty department. Verrazzano, the sailor who witnessed the densely populated East Coast, called a native who boarded his ship “as beautiful in stature and build as I can possibly describe.” …. British fisherman William Wood described the Indians in New England as “more amiable to behold, though dressed only in Adam’s finery, than … an English dandy in the newest fashion.”
Europeans thought baths attracted the black humors (National Library of Medicine. Hippocrates ‘ca. 460 BCE–370 BCE’ is credited with developing the theory of the four humors – blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm, and their influence on the body and its emotions), or some such bullshit, because they never washed and were amazed by the Indians’ interest in personal cleanliness. The natives, for their part, viewed Europeans as “just plain smelly” according to first-hand records.
According to a Pilgrim journal from the days immediately after their arrival, Pilgrims raided Indian graves for “bowls, trays, dishes and things like that. We took several of the prettiest things to carry away with us, and covered the body up again.”
One of the most infamous and well documented issues was the use of Ethnic Cleansing by Biological Warfare. The suggestion was posed by Colonel Jeffrey Amherst in letters to Colonel Henry Bouquet. Amherst, having learned smallpox had broken out among the garrison at Fort Pitt, and after learning of the loss Boeuf and Presqu’Isle, wrote to Colonel Bouquet:
“Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.”
Bouquet, who was already marching to relieve Fort Pitt, agreed with this suggestion in a postscript when he responded to Amherst just days later on 13 July 1763:
P.S. “I will try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard’s Method, and hunt them with English Dogs, supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermin.
In response, also in a postscript, Amherst replied:
“P.S. You will Do well to try to Inoculate the Indians by means of Blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.”
Fort Pitt had anticipated these orders. Reporting on parleys with Delaware chiefs on June 24, a trader William Trent wrote:
“[We] gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect.”
The military hospital records confirm “two blankets and handkerchiefs were taken from people in the Hospital to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians.’’ The fort commander paid for these items, which he certified:
“were had for the uses above mentioned. H”
Moving along…
1st Nation people consistently resisted demands to cede their lands. However Americans were determined to acquire them regardless therefore the United States Government constantly and continually pursued war against Indians.
During the removal process in the 1830s, approximately 2,000 Choctaws, 4,500 Creeks, and 5,000 Cherokees succumbed to death primarily from intersecting factors of disease, starvation, exposure, and demoralization. Many hundreds died during the journey on the “Trail of Tears”
There was a clear intent to fulfill ‘Manifest Destiny’, from the small-pox infested blankets to the bounty on buffalo to the deceptive treaties promising one thing and delivering another. President Theodore Roosevelt referred to the Western Nations as the “Red Wastes” in one of his books.
“Of course our who history has been one of expansion… that the [Indians] recede or are conquered, with the attendant fact that peace follows their retrogression or conquest, it is due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races who have not lost their fighting instinct, and by which their expansion are gradually brining peace into the Red Wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway.”
To enforce compliance to relocate, the federal government threatened the withdrawal of federal protection, making 1st Nation peoples subject to state legal regimes leaving them vulnerable to settler invasion and dispossession. U.S. government officials threatened massive violence if they resisted abandoning their lands. When 1st Nations people refused, government officials attacked.
Between 1850 and 1860, the state of California alone paid approximately 1.5 million dollars ($250,000 reimbursed by the federal government) to hire “militias” whose purpose was to protect settlers from indigenous populations. These “private military forays” were involved in several massacres including the Yontoket Massacre, the Bloody Island Massacre at Clear Lake, and the Old Shasta Massacre. These “militias” sometimes participated in the “wanton killing” of Native peoples. The first governor of California, Peter Burnett, openly called for the extermination of the Indian tribes, and in reference to the violence against California’s Native population, he said:
“That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert.”
Newspapers cheered on the campaign. In 1853 the Yreka Herald called on the government to provide aid to “enable the citizens of the north to carry on a war of extermination until the last redskin of these tribes has been killed. Extermination is no longer a question of time–the time has arrived, the work has commenced and let the first man who says treaty or peace be regarded as a traitor.” Other newspapers voiced similar sentiments.
Between 1835 and the 1880s, the Mexican and Anglo authorities paid private armies to hunt Native Americans, paying per kill and using scalps as receipts. The rather liberal payment policies of the local authorities made the scalp industry highly profitable. Indian hunters could keep any livestock or loot they recovered, civilians, soldiers, Mexican nationals, and foreigners were all eligible, and unquestioning inspectors all enticed unscrupulous men into this business. Mexican scalps were just as good as Indians, the scalps of women and children were bought for $100 (although the law made no provisions for this), and the bounties were advertised both in Mexico and North of the Rio Grande.
Many of the scalp hunters were former Texas Rangers or forty-niners searching for quick cash. Towns offered bounty hunters cash for every Indian head or scalp they obtained. Rewards ranged from $5 for every severed head in Shasta City in 1855 to 25 cents for a scalp in Honey Lake in 1863. One resident of Shasta City wrote about how he remembers seeing men bringing mules to town, each laden with eight to twelve Indian heads. Other regions passed laws calling for collective punishment for the whole village for crimes allegedly committed by Indians, up to the destruction of the entire village and all of its inhabitants. These policies led to the destruction of as many as 150 Native communities.
The Alta Californian newspaper reported on a massacre of Native People carried out by Captain Jarboe in 1860: “The attacking party rushed upon them, blowing out their brains and splitting their heads open with tomahawks. Little children in baskets, and even babes, had their heads smashed to pieces or cut open. Mothers and infants shared the same phenomenon…. Many of the fugitives were chased or shot as they ran…. The children, scarcely able to run, toddled toward the squaws for protection, crying with fright, but were overtaken, slaughtered like wild animals and thrown into piles.”
On April 12, 1860 the state legislature approved $9,347.39 for “payment of the indebtedness incurred by the expedition against the Indians in the County of Mendocino organized under the command of Captain W. S. Jarboe in 1859.” California’s governor wrote a letter to Jarboe congratulating him for doing “all that was anticipated” and giving his “sincere thanks for the manner in which it [the campaign] was conducted.”
In order to clear the way for white settlement, the U.S. Senate in 1853 authorized three commissioners to negotiate treaties with the Indian tribes in California. Eighteen treaties were negotiated. The Indian tribes agreed to give away millions of acres of land in exchange for the U.S. government’s promise of protection and lands with adequate water and game to sustain them and their way of life. These lands would have contained about 7.5 million acres, or 7.5 percent of the land area of California. The Indians began moving to their new lands only to find out that the U.S. Senate had refused to ratify their treaties.
Instead of the treaties, the U.S. decided on “a system of military posts” on government-owned reservations. Each of these reservations would put into place a “system of discipline and instruction.” The cost of the troops would be “borne by the surplus produce of Indian labor.” No treaties were to be negotiated with the Indians; instead they would be “invited to assemble within these reserves.”
In the end, perhaps the most poignant expression of the California native peoples heartfelt desire for peace were spoken by the Great Chief Tenaya, of the Ah-wah-nee-chee People:
“We do not want anything from the White Men. Our women are able to do our work. Go then; Let us remain in the Mountains where we were born; Where the ashes of our Fathers have been given to the Winds.”
I wasn’t until June 2, 1924, Congress granted citizenship to Native Americans born in the U.S. Yet even after the Indian Citizenship Act, we still weren’t allowed to vote until 1957 because the right to vote was governed by White People Law.
In 1935 Native American people could be fined and sent to prison for practicing certain traditional religious beliefs
In 1968, discrimination was made illegal but never went into effect. Indian Civil Rights Act (1968) also called the Indian Bill of Rights; Native Americans were finally guaranteed many civil rights they had been fighting for. The ICRA supports the following:
Right to free speech, press, and assembly Protection from unreasonable search and seizure Right of criminal defendant to a speedy trial, to be advised of the charges, and to confront any adverse witnesses Right to hire an attorney in a criminal case. Protection against self-incrimination. Protection against cruel and unusual punishment, excessive bail, incarceration of more than one year and/or a fine in excess of $5,000 for any one offense. Protection from double jeopardy or ex post facto laws. Right to a jury trial for offenses punishable by imprisonment. Equal protection under the law and due process. Other civil rights such as sovereignty, hunting and fishing, and voting are still issues facing Native people today.
Not until in 1969, and after years of unequal schooling, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was formed to fight for equal education for Native Americans.
1978 natives were not to be imprisoned any longer for ceremonies and religious practices, but this didn’t go into effect until 1983.
UPDATE 12-7-2016:
At least 26 Native Americans have been killed by U.S. police since January 1, 2016.
At least 20 were killed in 2015.
At least 16 were killed in 2014.
At least 4 were killed May 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013.
The true number is undoubtedly higher because many remain unidentified as Native American and many are mistakenly identified as Hispanic, Latino or White.
As of October 15 The Guardian lists 13 killed in 2016 and 13 killed in 2015.
The Washington Post lists 12 killed in 2016 and 10 killed in 2015.
Citations:
[1] 1849 California Gold Rush: Gold and Genocide. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
[2]Native Indians & The Gold Rush: A California Holocaust. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
[3]The Scalp Industry. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
Kristeen T. Hernandez …. Reporter ~ Photographer ~ Videographer; and member in good standing with the Constitution First Amendment Press Association (CFAPA.org)
Let Our Voices Echo 