Authors: William M. Osborn
The Wild Frontier (53 page)
| * Atrocities by Indians against other Indians are included |
Total 9,156, or 56 percent of all atrocity deaths
APPENDIX C
Deaths Caused by Specific Settler Atrocities
| Date | Number of deaths | Brief description of the atrocity |
|---|---|---|
| c.1623 | c.150 | Governor Wyatt poisoned Indians |
| 1634 | 1 | Dutch soldiers tortured a Hackensack Indian, fed him his own flesh, castrated him, flayed him, dragged him through the streets alive, and finally beat his head off |
| 1637 | 600 | Settlers and Indians burned Pequot town |
| 1643 | 80 | Dutch soldiers murdered Wappingers |
| 1655 | 2 | Dutch killed Indian man and woman |
| 1659 | 2+ | Dutch killed peace emissaries |
| 1675 | 32 | Nanticokes killed over account dispute |
| 1676 | 1 | Connecticut militia severed Weetamoo’s head |
| 1676 | 1 | Soldiers killed, drew, and quartered King Philip |
| c.1677 | 1 | Soldiers beheaded Annawan, Philip’s successor |
| 1697 | 10 | Hannah Duston scalped her Indian captors |
| 1711 | 1 | Swiss colonists roasted a chief alive |
| 1713 | 366+ | Slave trader Moore with settlers and Indians burned hundreds and murdered 166 Indians |
| 1756 | 2 | Settler M’Swine scalped his Indian captor and another Indian |
| 1763 | 20 | The Paxton Boys murdered 20 Indians |
| 1764 | 5 | Indian captive David Owens escaped, then scalped some of the Indians |
| 1778 | 5+ | Major Moses Van Campen took several scalps |
| c.1778 | 5 | Pennsylvanians took Indian scalps |
| 1779 | 6 | George Rogers Clark scalped 2 and murdered 4 Indians |
| 1779 | 2 | Soldiers skinned captured Indians |
| 1781 | 15 | Soldiers killed, then scalped, Indian prisoners |
| 1781 | 1 | Civilian murdered Indian chief during truce |
| 1782 | 90+ | Militia murdered Indians at Gnadenhutten |
| 1786 | 1 | Captain McGary murdered and scalped Indian chief |
| 1791 | 6 | Soldiers scalped 5 Indians and beheaded another |
| 1794 | 1 | Soldiers scalped Indian after the Battle of Fallen Timbers |
| 1795 | 4+ | Alexander Outlaw murdered women and children |
| 1795 | 17 | Benjamin Harrison murdered Creeks and beheaded some |
| 1813 | 46 | Davy Crockett burned Creeks alive in a house |
| 1813 | 12 | Militia scalped Indians at Frenchtown, Michigan |
| 1824 | 9 | Settlers murdered Indians on Fall Creek in Indiana |
| 1832 | 27+ | Trappers in Wyoming murdered 27 Indians |
| 1832 | 2 | Trappers in Wyoming burned Indians to death |
| 1838 | 1 | Catlin robbed the grave of Chief Black Bird |
| 1848 | 25 | Texas Rangers killed Wichita Indians |
| 1848 | 20+ | Oregon militia murdered Cayuse Indians |
| 1849 | 20+ | After miners in California raped Indian women and Indians killed miners, miners killed Indians |
| 1849 | 1 | Miner and Indian in California disputed ownership of horse, and Indian was killed |
| 1849 | 1 | Ruins of smoking house found, settlers followed tracks leading from it to California Indian, and he was killed |
| unknown | 2 | Army captain Naglee in California murdered 2 Indian chiefs |
| 1849 | 27 | White gang murdered Indians in California |
| 1849 | 24+ | After Indians in California killed 2 ranchers, soldiers surrounded 300 Indians, killed many; captain described it as “a perfect slaughter house” |
| unknown | 1 | Prospector in California accused Indian of stealing his pick; chief came to inquire about it and was killed |
| c.1850 | 1 | Settlers dragged the father of Scarface Charley to death |
| 1850 | 1 | Ferryboat owner in California killed employee of competitor |
| 1851 | 27 | Savage, owner of store that had been raided in California, found Indian camp and killed occupants |
| unknown | 1 | California Indian stole horse, and owner killed him |
| 1851 | 10 | Store owner Savage surprised Indian camp in California |
| 1851 | 1 | Indian in California was called outside his home and knifed |
| 1852 | 153 | Indians in California killed some cows, and ranchers retaliated |
| 1853 | 200+ | During their harvest dance, California Indians murdered |
| 1853 | 2 | Ranchers in California who had been raided hired men to kill Indians. One of these men killed an Indian and captured another, who was hanged |
| 1853 | 13 | Stock was stolen from a California ranch, a posse formed, Indians found in a cave and killed |
| 1853 | 1 | An Indian chief in California threatened vengeance on the whites, and he was hanged |
| 1853 | 4 | A store was robbed in California; an owner went to the ranch of the Indians he thought were the robbers, found some of his goods, and firing broke out |
| 1853 | 18 | There was a dispute in California between miners and Indians over some thefts, and killings occurred |
| 1853 | 3 | In Sonora, California, Indians stole some stock, and they were pursued and killed |
| 1853 | 10 | Cattle were stolen in California, ranchers attacked the Indians, and all were killed for this and other stealing offenses |
| 1853 | 6 | An army major learned that a white woman might have been kidnapped by Indians in California; his men went to the Indian camp; some Indians tried to escape and were killed |
| 1854 | 3 | Lieutenant Grattan killed Sioux |
| unknown | 1 | Army captain Wessels reported that an inoffensive Indian had been murdered by a white man near the post |
| 1855 | 1 | Militia cut off ears and scalp of Walla Walla chief |
| 1855 | 23 | Settlers murdered old men, women, and children in Rouge River War in Oregon |
| 1855 | 86 | Colonel Harney killed innocent Sioux in revenge for Grattan’s Massacre |
| 1856 | 9 | Because the sugar of a California miner had been stolen by Indians, he put strychnine in it |
| 1857 | 350 | In the vicinity of Round Hill in California, it is claimed this great massacre took place. For reasons stated in the text, this report must be viewed with caution |
| 1859 | 1 | An Indian boy in California set fire to a house; a mob took him from the courthouse and hanged him |
| 1859 | 87 | California citizens complained Indians were putting their lives and property in danger, and the governor sent out a party to “chastise” them |
| 1859 | 16 | The governor sent out another party |
| 1859 | 80 | Yet another expedition was sent |
| unknown | 283 | Captain Jarboe in California bragged about these killings (which may duplicate some of the above numbers) |
| 1860 | 65 | White men in California rowed to an island where Indians were dancing |
| 1860 | 240 | The |
| 1860 | 32 | Stock had been stolen in Mendocino County, California, and settlers had formed a standing army |
| 1860 | 60 | Captain Jarboe’s men in California killed Indians on South Eel River and near Round Valley |
| unknown | 200+ | This massacre occurred at the mouth of Eel River in California |
| 1860 | 26 | Settlers in Humboldt County, California, attacked Indians in retaliation for thefts by them |
| 1861 | 46 | In the same California county, settlers who had thefts found the Indians they believed responsible and killed them |
| 1861 | 2 | After a robbery by Indians in California causing a death, settlers killed these Indians |
| 1861 | 3 | Lieutenant Bascom hanged relatives of Cochise and left their bodies hanging for months as a warning |
| 1861 | 35 | Soldiers killed Navajo after a horse race |
| 1862 | 2 | Captain Graydon murdered Apache chiefs |
| unknown | 2 | Soldiers robbed Indian grave sites in Montana |
| 1864 | 24 | Rancher Wolsey in Arizona alone massacred these Indians at a peace council |
| 1864 | 2+ | Soldiers caught Indians who had killed another soldier and cut their heads off and stuck them on poles |
| 1864 | c.163 | Indians murdered, scalped, dismembered, raped, etc., at Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado |
| 1865 | 1 | Whites in California tried to get possession of a 10-year-old Indian girl; a crippled Indian boy resisted and was killed |
| 1867 | 1 | Soldiers scalped and beheaded Sioux |
| c.1868 | 108 | George Porter, whose family was killed by Indians, claimed he murdered Indians in retaliation |
| 1868 | 1 | Army scout Lem Wilson killed Indian in a fight, then scalped him |
| 1869 | 2+ | Indians in Montana killed in a fight; soldiers be-headed them, pickled their ears, and boiled flesh from their skulls |
| 1869 | 1 | Army scout Welch killed Cheyenne chief Pretty Bear in the Battle of Summit Springs, then scalped him |
| 1870 | 173 | The army attacked a Blackfoot camp, killing 90 women and 50 children |
| 1871 | 30 | Settlers in California chased Indians into a cave and shot them |
| 1871 | 21 | Settlers, Mexicans, and Indians attacked sleeping Apache, killing women and children |
| 1873 | 17 | Modoc prisoners, including women and children, attacked by Oregon volunteers and killed |
| 1873 | 4 | The heads of the hanged killers of General Canby were sent to the army museum in Washington |
| 1873 | 4 | A settler was taking warriors in his wagon to surrender, but other settlers killed them |
| 1874 | 12 | After the Battle of Adobe Walls in Texas, soldiers be-headed Comanche and Cheyenne Indians and put their heads on posts |
| 1874 | 2 | General Crook demanded the head of Apache chief Delshay; 2 were brought in by another group of Apache, and Crook displayed both |
| 1876 | 1 | Buffalo Bill killed Cheyenne chief Yellow Hair in battle, then scalped him |
| 1876 | 1 | Sioux chief American Horse was badly wounded in South Dakota. After he died, soldiers scalped him |
| 1878 | 1 | Indians scalped Paiute chief Egan and gave the scalp to Colonel Miles; his surgeon brought back the head |
| 1890 | 63 | Sioux women and children gunned down by soldiers at the Battle of Wounded Knee |
Total 7,193, or 44 percent of all atrocity deaths
Introduction
1.
Coward, John M.,
The Newspaper Indian: Native American Identity in the Press, 1820-90
(1999), 233, notes that the cultural gap between white Americans and Indians was fundamental and wide.
2.
Hughes, Robert,
Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America
(1993), 121.
3.
Commager, Henry Steele (ed.),
The West: An Illustrated History
(1976), 267.
4.
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr.,
The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society
(1992), 46.
5.
Nash, Gary B.,
Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America
(1992), introductory page.
6.
Marshall, S. L. A.,
Crimsoned Prairie: The Indian Wars
(1972), xiii.
7.
Waldman, Carl,
Who Was Who in Native American History
(1990), v-vi.
8.
Quoted in Josephy, Alvin M., Jr.,
The Indian Heritage of America
(1991), 7.
9.
Bordewich, Fergus M.,
Killing the White Man’s Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century
(1996), 18.
10.
Josephy,
Indian Heritage
, 280.
11.
Waldman, Carl,
Atlas of the North American Indian
(1985), 109.
12.
“Who Were the First Americans?”
Newsweek
, April 26, 1999, 57.
13.
Ibid., 52.
14.
New York Times
, October 26, 1999.
15.
World Book Encyclopedia
, vol. 10 (1973), 108.
16.
Josephy,
Indian Heritage
, 144.
17.
Wissler, Clark,
Indians of the United States
(1940), 85.
18.
Axelrod, Alan,
Chronicle of the Indian Wars from Colonial Times to Wounded Knee
(1993), 169.
19.
Quoted in Brown, Dee,
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
(1991), 78.
20.
Axelrod,
Chronicle of the Indian Wars
, vii.
21.
Marshall,
Crimsoned Prairie
, 2.
22.
Tebbel, John, and Keith Jennison,
The American Indian Wars
(1961), 261.
1.
Coward,
The Newspaper Indian
, 160.
2.
Hays, Robert G. (ed.),
A Race at Bay: New York Times Editorials on “The Indian Problem;’ 1860-1890
(1997), 3.
3.
The military shared the wrath of the
Times.
General Sherman wired General Sheridan in 1876 stating that he hoped that General Miles would “crown his success by capturing or killing Sitting Bull and his remnant of outlaws.” Robinson, Charles M., III,
A Good Year to Die
(1995), 280.
4.
Dippie, Brian W.,
The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and U.S. Indian Policy
(1991), 133.
5.
Quoted in Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 5-6.
6.
Josephy,
Indian Heritage
, 281.
7.
Nash,
Red, White, and Black, 37.
8.
Kraus, Michael,
The United States to 1865 (1959)
, 35.
9.
Smith, Page,
A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution
(1976), 108.
10.
Quoted in Bordewich,
Killing the White Man’s Indian
, 35.
11.
Josephy, Alvin M., Jr.,
500 Nations
(1994), 204.
12.
Pearce, Roy Harvey,
The Savages of America: A Study of the Indian and the Idea of Civilization
(1965), 12.
13.
Sheehan, Bernard W.,
Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Philanthropy and the American Indian
(1973), 205.
14.
Quoted in Axelrod,
Chronicle of the Indian Wars
, 11-12.
15.
Gilbert, Bil,
God Gave Us This Country: Tekamthi and the First American Civil War (1989), 2.
16.
Waldman,
Who Was Who
, 40.
17.
Quoted in Nash,
Red, White, and Black, 76.
18.
Waldman,
Who Was Who
, 223.
19.
Quoted in Nash,
Red, White, and Black
, 84.
20.
Smith,
A New Age Now Begins
, 1155.
21.
Ibid., 1155.
22.
Quoted in Prucha, Francis Paul,
Documents of United States Indian Policy
(1990), 2.
23.
Waldman,
Who Was Who
, 187.
24.
Quoted in Dippie,
The Vanishing American
, 122.
25.
Prucha,
Documents of United States Indian Policy
, 13.
26.
Waldman,
Atlas
, 114-15.
27.
Dippie,
The Vanishing American, 5.
28.
Waldman,
Who Was Who
, 373.
29.
Ibid., 167.
30.
Quoted in Sheehan,
Seeds of Extinction
, 224.
31.
Quoted in Dippie,
The Vanishing American, 6.
32.
Dippie, 6.
33.
Quoted in Dippie, 5-6.
34.
Dippie, 6.
35.
Ibid., 9.
36.
Quoted in Dippie, 7.
37.
Quoted in Washburn, Wilcomb E.,
The Indian in America
(1975), 19.
38.
Jackson, Helen Hunt,
A Century of Dishonor
(1885), 254-55.
39.
Dippie,
The Vanishing American
, 123.
40.
Quoted in Dippie, 8.
41.
Waldman,
Who Was Who
, 52-53.
42.
Dippie,
The Vanishing American
, 30.
43.
Ibid., 62-63.
44.
Quoted in Dippie, 52.
45.
Ibid., 58.
46.
Washburn,
The Indian in America
, 209.
47.
Quoted in Sheehan,
Seeds of Extinction, 206.
48.
Brinkley, Douglas,
American Heritage History of the United States
(1998), 154.
49.
Dippie,
The Vanishing American
, 142.
50.
Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 3.
51.
Quoted in Coward,
The Newspaper Indian, 2.
52.
Quoted in Bordewich,
Killing the White Man’s Indian
, 51.
53.
Marshall,
Crimsoned Prairie
, 28.
54.
Quoted in Coward,
The Newspaper Indian
, 118.
55.
Ibid., 107.
56.
Quoted in Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 52.
57.
Hays, 132.
58.
Quoted in Hays, 1.
59.
Hays, 51.
60.
Ibid., 234-35.
61.
Coward,
The Newspaper Indian
, 201.
62.
Debo, Angie,
A History of the Indians of the United States
(1989), 234.
63.
Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 215.
64.
Quoted in Hays, 178.
65.
Ibid., 298.
66.
Ibid., 26.
67.
Hays, 27.
68.
Quoted in Hays, 28.
69.
Waldman,
Who Was Who
, 136.
70.
Berkhofer, Robert E., Jr.,
The White Man’s Indian
(1978), 168.
71.
Quoted in Coward,
The Newspaper Indian
, 198.
72.
Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 327.
73.
Quoted in Hays, 93.
74.
Ibid., 33.
75.
Lazarus, Edward,
Black Hills/White justice
(1991), 89.
76.
Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 141.
77.
Coward,
The Newspaper Indian
, 170.
78.
Dippie,
The Vanishing American
, 127.
79.
Jackson,
A Century of Dishonor
, 198.
80.
Dippie,
The Vanishing American
, 156; Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 21.
81.
Hays, 37.
82.
Brandon, William,
Indians
(1987), 348.
83.
Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 283-84.
84.
Ibid., 251.
85.
Quoted in Dippie,
The Vanishing American
, 120.
86.
Quoted in Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 227-28.
87.
Quoted in Wilson, James,
The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native Americans
(1998), 235.
88.
Quoted in Hays,
A Race at Bay
, 322.
89.
Quoted in Dippie,
The Vanishing American
, 183.
90.
Ibid., 183.
91.
Ibid., 184.
92.
Ibid., 184
93.
Ibid., 250.
94.
Waldman,
Atlas
, 204.
95.
Matthiessen, Peter,
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1991)
, 34-35.
96.
Wilson,
The Earth Shall Weep
, 396, 405.
97.
Wilson, p. 400, criticized the government in connection with this occupation because it “failed either to provide decent accommodations for them [the occupiers] or … [to] arrange meetings with the President and other high-ranking leaders.”
98.
Lazarus,
Black Hills/White Justice
, 300-1.
99.
Waldman,
Atlas
, 205.
100.
Hagan, William T.,
American Indians
(1979), 171-72.
101.
Lazarus,
Black Hills/White Justice
, 301.
102.
Quoted in Wilson,
The Earth Shall Weep
, 401.
103.
Washburn,
The Indian in America
, 273-74.
104.
Hays,
A Race at Bay
, xx.
105.
Wilson,
The Earth Shall Weep
, xvii-xviii.
106.
Leo, John,
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
, January 31, 1995.
1.
Bordewich, in
Killing the White Man’s Indian
, commented that “in the film
Dances with Wolves
[described as a New Age Western on p. 29], which is a virtual compendium of currently popular attitudes about Indians, Euro-Americans are portrayed almost without exception as sadists, thugs, or lost souls” (p. 211). Gary L. Ebersole, in
Captured by Texts: Puritan to Postmodern Images of Indian Captivity
(1995),
255-56
, similarly said, “Few whites come off well in the film—most are portrayed as ignorant, prejudiced, and brutal, while the Sioux are wise, open-minded, and humane. Whites are largely written off as incorrigibly corrupt.” Two realistic fictional motion pictures about Indians and settlers on the frontier are
The Unconquered
and
The Last of the Mohicans.
2.
Spicer, Edward H.,
The American Indians
(1980), 19.
3.
Debo,
A History of the Indians
, 3.
4.
Wissler,
Indians of the United States
, 298.
5.
Catlin, George,
Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Conditions of the North American Indians Written During Eight Years’ Travel (1832-1839) Amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians of North America
(1841), 463.
6.
Ibid., 6.
7.
Tebbel and Jennison,
The American Indian Wars
, 1.
8.
Marshall,
Crimsoned Prairie
, 2.
9.
Sheehan,
Seeds of Extinction
, 193, paraphrasing James Adair.
10.
Carey, Larry Lee, “A Study of the Indian Captivity Narratives as a Popular Literary Genre, ca. 1675-1875” (1978), Ph.D. diss., Michigan State University, 30.
11.
Collier, John,
The Indians of the Americas
(1947), 174.
12.
Wilson,
The Earth Shall Weep
, 27.
13.
Ibid., 55.
14.
Ibid., 260.
15.
Smith,
A New Age Now Begins
, 107-8.
16.
Quoted in Berkhofer,
The White Man’s Indian
, 8.
17.
Josephy,
Indian Heritage
, 93. To about the same effect Wissler said, “The Algonkin were not merely at war with the Iroquois but often with each other. There were about a hundred Algonkin tribes, all independent like tiny nations, all sooner or later quarreling and starting feuds—little vicious circles impossible to break. In revenge for past injuries a few members of one tribe would stealthily approach the camp of a hostile tribe, take a scalp or two and escape if they could.” Wissler,
Indians of the United States
, 70.
The relationship between “Algonquian” and “Iroquois” is complex. Algonquian was a major Indian language spoken by several tribes with different dialects, and Indians speaking one dialect might not be able to understand those speaking another. Iroquoian is also an Indian dialect. The Iroquois are also the most widespread Indian tribe in upper New York and the Lake Ontario region of Canada. The Iroquois Confederacy (later the Iroquois League) eventually consisted of several tribes. Complexity is compounded by the fact that Algonquian is often spelled Algonkin, sometimes refers to a small Canadian tribe, and sometimes the names are misspelled. Waldman,
Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes
(1988), 6, 103.
18.
Waldman,
Atlas
, 93.
19.
Nash,
Red, White, and Black
, 25.