Indian massacres
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In the long history of the European colonization of North America, the term "Indian massacre" was often used to describe either killings of Europeans by indigenous people of the North American continent ("Indians") or mass killings of indigenous peoples by Europeans. In theory, massacre applied to the killing of civilian noncombatants or to the summary execution of prisoners-of-war. In practice, the label was often haphazardly applied, rarely without bias, and was sometimes used to describe an overwhelming (though lawful) military defeat. Similarly, massacres were sometimes mislabeled "battles" in an attempt to give legitimacy to what would today be considered a war crime.
Determining how many people died in these massacres overall is difficult. In the book The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee, amateur historian William M. Osborn sought to tally every recorded atrocity in the area that would eventually become the continental United States, from first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890), and determined that 9,156 people died from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans, and 7,193 people died from atrocities perpetrated by whites. Osborn defines an atrocity as the murder, torture, or mutilation of civilians, the wounded and prisoners. Different definitions would obviously produce different totals. For example, Osborn does not count Indian deaths on the Trail of Tears (because these were allegedly unintentional), but he does count several episodes of post-mortem mutilation, even of combatants killed in open battle. Osborn's exact total of 16,349 killed on both sides can therefore be disputed.
[edit] List of massacres
A list of the larger or more notorious events in North America known as massacres:
| Year | Date | Name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1500-1600s | sustained | Disease pandemics sparked by the arrival of Eurasian infectious diseases | Smallpox (1525, 1558, 1589), typhus (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614) and measles (1618) pandemics spread throughout the indigenous populations of the North America continent. The number of indigenous peoples killed is estimated at 10 million to 110 million depending on the demographic model used. The large uncertainty in the full extent of these pandemics is due to uncertainty regarding: 1) the pre-European population size; and 2) the percentage of casualties. [1] |
| 1622 | March 22 | Jamestown Massacre | Powhatans kill 347 English settlers throughout the Virginia colony. |
| 1637 | May 26 | Mystic Massacre | English colonists, with Mohegan and Narragansett allies, attack a large Pequot village on the Mystic River in what is now Connecticut, killing around 500 villagers. |
| 1690 | February 8 | French and Iroquois destroy Schenectady, New York, killing 60 settlers, including ten women and at least twelve children. | |
| 1704 | February 29 | Deerfield Massacre | A force comprised of Abenaki, Kanienkehaka, Wyandot and Pocumtuck Indians, led by a small contingent of French-Canadian militia, sack the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 56 civilians and taking dozens more as captives. |
| 1757 | August | Following the fall of Fort William Henry, between 70 and 180 British and colonial prisoners are killed by Indian allies of the French. | |
| 1778 | July 3 | Wyoming Valley Massacre | Following a battle with Patriot defenders of Forty Fort, Iroquois allies of the Loyalist forces hunt and kill those who flee, then torture those who surrendered to death. |
| August 31 | Stockbridge Massacre | A battle of the American Revolutionary War that rebel propaganda portrays as a massacre. | |
| November 11 | Cherry Valley Massacre | More than 30 settlers killed. | |
| 1782 | March 8 | Gnadenhütten massacre | Nearly 100 non-combatant Christian Delaware (Lenape) Indians, mostly women and children, are killed one at a time by a hammer blow to the head by Pennsylvania militiamen. |
| 1813 | January 22 | River Raisin Massacre | Between 30 and 60 Kentucky militia were killed after surrendering. |
| August 30 | Fort Mims Massacre | Following defeat at the Battle of Burnt Corn, a band of Red Sticks sack Fort Mims, Alabama, killing 400 civilians and taking 250 scalps. This action precipitates the Creek War. | |
| 1817 | Spring | Battle of Claremore Mound | Cherokee Indians wipe out Osage Indians led by Chief Clermont at Claremore Mound, Indian Territory. |
| 1818 | April 22 | Chehaw Affair | U.S. troops attack a non-hostile village during the First Seminole War, killing an estimated 10 to 50 men, women and children. |
| 1832 | May 20 | Indian Creek Massacre | Indians, mainly Potawatomi, kidnap two girls and kill fifteen men, women and children. |
| August 1-2 | Battle of Bad Axe | Around 300 Indian men, women and children are slaughtered in Wisconsin by white soldiers. | |
| 1833 | Spring | Cutthroat Gap Massacre | Osage Indians wipe out a Kiowa Indian village in Indian Territory. |
| 1836 | May 19 | Fort Parker Massacre | Six men killed by a mixed Indian group in Limestone County, Texas. |
| 1838 | October 5 | Killough Massacre | Indians massacre eighteen members and relatives of the Killough family in Texas. |
| 1847 | November 29 | Whitman massacre | The murder of missionaries Dr Marcus Whitman, Mrs Narcissa Whitman and twelve others at Walla Walla, Washington by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, triggering the Cayuse War. |
| 1854 | August 17 | Kaibai Creek Massacre | Forty-two Winnemem Wintu men, women and children are killed by white settlers at Kaibai Creek, California. |
| August 20 | Ward Massacre | Eighteen of the 20 members of the Alexander Ward party were killed by Shoshoni indians while traveling on the Oregon Trail in western Idaho. This event led to the eventual abadonment of Fort Boise and Fort Hall, in favor of the use of military escorts. [1][2] | |
| 1855 | August 17 | Grattan Massacre | Twenty-nine U.S. soldiers killed by Brulé Lakota Sioux Indians in Nebraska Territory. |
| 1860 | February 26 | Indian Island Massacre | At least 100 Wiyot Indians, mostly women and children, are slaughtered by white settlers in Humboldt County, California, during one of three simultaneous assaults on the Wiyot [3] |
| 1862 | Aug/Sep | As many as 800 settlers killed during the Sioux Uprising. | |
| October 24 | Tonkawa Massacre | Accompanied by Caddo allies, a detachment of irregular Union Indians, mainly Kickapoo, Delaware and Shawnee, attempt to destroy the Tonkawa tribe in Indian Territory. One hundred and fifty of 390 Tonkawa survive. | |
| 1863 | January 29 | Bear River Massacre | Col. Patrick Connor leads a regiment killing at least 200 Indian men, women and children near Preston, Idaho. |
| April 19 | Keyesville Massacre | White settlers kill 35 Tehachapi men in Kern County, California [4]. | |
| 1864 | November 29 | Sand Creek Massacre | Militiamen slaughter at least 160 Cheyenne Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado. |
| 1866 | December 21 | Fetterman Massacre | A compliment of 80 soldiers and two civilians sent to relieve a waggon train under attack from Oglala Sioux led by Crazy Horse are ambushed and annihilated near Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. |
| 1867 | July 2 | Kidder Massacre | Cheyenne and Sioux Indians ambush and kill a 2nd US Cavalry detachment of eleven men and Indian guide near Beaver Creek in Sherman County, Kansas [5]. |
| 1870 | January 23 | Marias Massacre | White Americans slaughter 173 Piegans, mainly women, children and the elderly. |
| 1876 | June 25 | Battle of the Little Big Horn | About 250 men of the US 7th Cavalry Regiment, under Lt. Col. George A. Custer, are annihilated in a battle against Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians[2]. |
| 1879 | January 8 | Northern Cheyenne under Dull Knife attempt to escape from confinement in Fort Robinson, Nebraska; about fifty survive. | |
| 1890 | December 29 | Wounded Knee Massacre | Around 300 Sioux men, women and children are massacred by US soldiers at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. |
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (ISBN 1-4000-4006-X), Charles C. Mann, Knopf, 2005.
- ^ Though widely portrayed as a massacre, Custer's men initiated the battle by attacking a nearby Sioux village and died fighting.
