In keeping with explicit orders from Washington, the Americans set ablaze every village in their path. Though we do visit Davenports family in Connecticut, we do not get a lot of insight into him as an individual. Thurs. What they said went to the bottom of our hearts: We accepted the invitation and promised to obey him. Hear now we entreat you, what has since happened, concerning that Land. History of Relations with our Brothers: 1613 to Today, Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), MAGAZINE OF SMITHSONIANS NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. You have compelled us to do that which has made us ashamed. The first screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers and special guests to be announced. But the title stuck even tighter than the Seneca chief could have imagined. The name in its original language(s) has been given variously as Conotocarius, Conotocaurious, Caunotaucarius, Conotocarious, Hanodaganears, and Hanadahguyus. https://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/06/27/town-destroyer-versus-the-iroquois-indians, Massacre & Retribution: The 1779-80 Sullivan Expedition, How a Native American Prophecy Over George Washington Affected the Country. Our Chiefs had felt your power & were unable to contend against you and they therefore gave up that Country. It also opens Fri/4 at the Roxie, with some screenings attended by Davenport and producer Keith Wilson. California Indian Artist Judith Lowry describes the Gold Rush as ground zero for Native Americans and a time when they experienced searing losses.She adds that Arnautoff aimed to subvert the dominant narrative about Indians, pioneers and settlers. It may be very small in your ears, & we therefore entreat you to hearken with attention. What was George Washington's favorite fruit? In 2018, he installed Mantle, a monument honouring Indigenous nations at the Virginia Capitol in Richmond. We asked each other what we had done to deserve such severe chastisement. History first: in 1779, three years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and in the thick of a violent revolution, Washington ordered the total destruction and devastation of Iroquois villages allied with King George. Graham with his Compy. Is the blame all ours? Yet to this day, the Iroquois (more properly, the Haudenosaunee) call Washington Conotocaurius, or "Town Destroyer." His army razed their well-constructed, permanent villages and laid waste to huge quantities of their food. Longtime Bay Area documentarians Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman interview historians, artists, activists, and GWHS students to probe a fascinating microcosm of todays culture wars. Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNER JEWISH FILM INSTITUTE, The California Film Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. 48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submithere. It also illuminates a work of. must know from you, whether you mean to leave us, and our children, any land to till. Note: The annotations to this document, and any other Main Image:Washington Square Park Arc, 2020. Many expressed distress at the revelation. Phelps (17491809) was a Massachusetts merchant, politician, and large-scale land speculator. Forty Indian villagesand a powerful indigenous nationwere razed on the orders of George Washington, Town Destroyer Versus the Iroquois Indians, By 1779, George Washington had already earned the famous moniker "Father of His Country." If you are, tell us so that those of our nation who have become your children & are determined to die so, may know what to do: In this case one chief has said, he would ask you to put him out of pain: Another, who will not think of dying by the hand of his father, has said he will retire to the Chataughque, eat of the faral root, and sleep with his fathers in peace. 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At fort Stanwix we agreed to deliver up those of our people, who should do you any wrong, that you might try them, and punish them according to your Law. Perhaps only in a city that loves its murals, some by Diego Rivera, and hates its murals, could murals painted in the 1930s under a New Deal art program, divide citizens from one another and stir up deeply seated passions. We also invite you to join the conversation on ourFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram. "And to this day when that name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers," Cornplanter said. . When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you Hanadagyas (Town Destroyer): and to this day when that name is heard our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers. If you want to leave all these Earthly woes behind, there is warm, fuzzy and interplanetary comfort to be found inGood Night Oppy. However, most ofBattlegroundsfocus is not on the headline-makers, but on those in the trenchesin particular, anti-abortion activists whove been working towards this moment for years, even decades. We could bear this confusion no longer, & determined to press thro every difficulty, and lift up our voice that you might hear us, and to claim that security in the possession of our lands which your commissioners so solemly promised us, and we now entreat you to enquire into our complaints and redress our wrongs. In other accounts, Washington was given the nickname sometime after the 1779 Sullivan Expedition in the American Revolutionary War, which destroyed at least 40 Iroquois villages. Answer (1 of 4): The most famous nickname (really, more of an honorary title) associated with George Washington was The Father of His Country. He signed the message "Conotocarious," or Town Devourer. Washington dined with Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks, Kaskaskias, Mahicans, Mohawks, Oneidas, and Senecas; in one week late in 1796, he had dinner with four different groups of Indians on four different daysand on such occasions the most powerful man in the United States followed the . left as is, but with explanatory text?) Well, OK, a few personalities here do seem driven by things other than (or in addition to) moral uprightness, such as the founder of an SF-based group who says Im perfectly aligned with mainstream feminism aside from the abortion issue. Still, she grew up in a religious cult and seems to have some, er, issueslike the kind of inordinate fondness for picking verbal fights with total strangers that can lead to fanaticism, and/or Fox News punditry. N MA F AU -K O N S g or W TI n. O a T C I fm SN ODU w-kau o PR nit. r e. s w. w. w. Tow. On the next day we let them know, that we were unwilling to sell all the Lands within their State, and proposed to let them have a part of it which we pointed to them in their map. George Washington for sure had that nickname. (The Iroquois dubbed him "Town Destroyer.") Needless to say, those lamentable future occupiers of the White House are highly accommodating, providing perhaps the most egregious example of Twitlers lack of backbone on any issue save self-interesthe had always been publicly pro-choice, then began waffling, switching sides with a vengeance when it sank in that he needed the pro-life voters to win. Others, like the Mohawk, fought with their longstanding allies, the British. According to historian George Bancroft, they were having a cordial visit and then the old chief, pointing to Washington, spoke the amazing prophecy. He paid us two thousand & five hundred dollars in hand part of the Ten thousand, and he sent for us last Spring to come and receive our money; but instead of paying us the remainder of the Ten Thousand dollars, and the one thousand dollars due for the first year, he offered us no more than five hundred dollars, and insisted he had agreed with us for that sum only to be paid yearly. For over 8 miles south of Onondaga Lake, the colonial army followed the orders of General Washington killing and burning. While there he met with Alexander McGillivray in August in an effort to enlist the Creek leader in a common effort to obtain a settlement with the United States but was rebuffed. Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955. After all, the issue goes back to 1779 when Washington ordered the destruction of the Iroquois villages. ", This lesser-known title also had its origins in 1779, when General Washington ordered what at the time was the largest-ever campaign against the Indians in North America. When the Ronald Reagan arrived to replace the George Washington in 2015 . and therefore weak as our nation was, they determined to take the chance of war rather than submit to such unjust demands, which seemed to have no bounds. Indigenous Values Initative. Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. | Benjamin Fanjoy/The Standard The founder of the San Francisco Jewish Festival and its director for 13 years, Kaufman teamed up with Alan Snitow, the former news director at KPFA, to make Blacks and Jews in 1997, Secrets of Silicon Valley in 2001, and this year Town Destroyer which premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Few visitors to the museum had ever heard of the Sullivan Campaign, or knew that most of New York state was our original homeland. UCLA Professor Kelley adds that its not about choosing sides and that no one person or group can tell the story.. texts. 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He wants to remind Washington that Cornplanter understands that he is a powerful warrior and has defeated the Seneca in the past. The artist, Victor Arnautoff, was a Russian emigre whod studied under Diego Rivera, and whose work reflected both that masters visual style and leftist politics. We delivered up two men, accordingly. The political doesnt get any more personal than when it comes to abortion, and now thanks to an activist conservative Supreme Court, it appears the era of Roe v. Wadeand choicemay well be over. We have nothing to answer to the children of the brothers of our fathers. the United States, and research and development projects to bring historical records to the Street the great trader at Niagara was then with us having come at the request of Phelps, and as he always professed to be our great friend we consulted him on this subject; He also told us, that our Lands had been ceded by the King and that we must give them up.5. He loves peace, and all that he had in store he has given to those who have been robbed by your people, lest they should plunder the innocent to repay themselves: the whole season which others employed in providing for their families, he has spent in his endeavors to preserve peace. For GWs reply, see GW to the Seneca Chiefs, 29 Dec. 1790. In fact, it dates back at least to 9 July 1776 when, after a public reading of the Declaration of Independence, a group of Continental soldiers and New Yorkers, calling themselves the Sons of Freedom, pulled down the equestrian statue of King George III on Bowling Green. Town Destroyer. Roxie Theater3117 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103. https://www.roxie.com/ai1ec_event/town-destroyer/. In July 2020, Americans are once again divided, gathering in the streets and tearing down statues. You told us say they, that the line drawn from Pensylvania, to lake Ontario, would mark it for ever on the East, and the line running from Beaver Creek, to Pensylvania, would mark it on the west; and we see that it is not so. JavaScript is disabled. What the Commissioners had said about the land having been ceded to them at the peace our Chiefs considered only as intended to lessen the price, & they passed it by with very little notice; but since that time we have heard so much of the right to our lands which the King gave when you made peace with him that it is our earnest desire you will tell us what they mean. We hearkened to them and were deceived until your army approached our towns. This line was established after the French and Indian War by King George as a boundary between the colonists and Native lands. The British agent George Beckwith reported to Lord Dorchester from New York on the course of Streets mission, noting that The application of Mr. Street in behalf of the Indians of the Five Nations by means of Mr. Wadsworth has drawn a declaration from the President, expressive of his intentions to pay every attention to the Indians in general, and Mr. Street is assured by General Knox, that his business will be taken into immediate consideration. Beckwith subsequently reported, however, that Mr. But before we speak to you of this, we He had been commissioned by the Five Nations in the spring of 1790 to seek redress of grievances against the New York lessees. Matt Dorsey, who wants to deport Fentanyl dealers, blocks approval, as 10 board members say his approach is deeply misguided. He was the ingenious and cunning general who overcame the most extensive empire in the world to create a brand-new, "free" nation: the United States of America. What is role of the artist in reflecting America to itself? Street has been informed by General Knox, that the President cannot interfere in the business of the five nations, committed to his agency; that if they are not satisfied with the behaviour of the New York Commissioners, they must apply to the Legislature which appointed them; in consequence of this answer Mr. Street intends to return to Niagara in a fortnight, and to petition the Legislature of this State at its next meeting (Dorchester to Grenville, 25 Sept. 1790, in Brymner, Report on Canadian Archives, 1890, description begins Douglas Brymner. Victor Arnautoff was one of the most prolific artists in San Francisco. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more., I would recommend, that some post in the center of the Indian Country, should be occupied with all expedition, with a sufficient quantity of provisions whence parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed.. (The Iroquois dubbed him Town Destroyer.) But some present-day students, parents, and observers found those depictions racially offensive, calling for the work to be removed or destroyed. The Game which the great Spirit sent into our Country for us to eat, is going from among us: We thought he intended we should till the ground as the white people do, and we talked to one another about it. Filmmaker Alan Snitow stands in front of an audience after a screening of the film Town Destroyer at the Little Roxie Theater in San Francisco Calif., on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. Legendary rock scene photographer's retrospective at Haight Street Art Center glittered with familiar faces. Alan Michelson is a Mohawk artist and a member of Six Nations of the Grand River. A Seneca leader named Tanacharison called Washington HandaganyasTown Destroyer.. When George Washington High Schooldesigned by architect Timothy Pfleuger, who also created the Castro and Paramount Theaters, among other landmarksopened in 1936, its hallways sported 13 impressive murals titledThe Life of Washington. Scarcely considered or acknowledged, our catastrophic losses, like those of other Native nations, are treated as settled business, rather than unsettling travesties in need of redress. The supreme executive council of Pennsylvania had informed Cornplanter and the other Seneca chiefs on 30 Oct. 1790 that He then threatened us with immediate war if we did not comply. Courtesy: the artist and Peabody Essex Museum, In 1779, Washington launched a full-scale invasion of Iroquoia, our extensive homelands. His great-grandson lived up to the name of Town Destroyer in his treatment of Indigenous nations both during and after the Revolutionary War (177583). 48hills.org is the official publication of the non-profit San Francisco Progressive Media Center. Town Destroyeran anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist film is likely to stir up all over again fundamental issues about censorship, trauma, genocide and ethnicity. But instead of trying them according to your Law, the lowest of your people took them from your magistrate, and put them immediately to death. No doubt he meant to deceive us. We will not join either side. Do this and so long2 as the Land shall remain that beloved name shall live in the heart of every Senecca. It was impossible for us to grant him this and we immediately refused. The current dispute over monuments in the US is not new. After some days he proposed to run a line at a small distance Eastward of our western boundary which we also refused to agree to. Often it took the army days to completely destroy all of the longhouses, fields, orchards and food stores. And at this moment his wife and children are lying on the Ground in want of food. Its time to reckon with a US founding father who waged genocidal warfare against Indigenous nations. We debated with him six days during all which time he persisted in refusing to pay us our just demand; and he ins[is]ted that we should receive the five hundred dollars, and Street from Niagara, also insisted on our receiving the money as it was offered to us. Charlottesville, Va., 199297. It did not leave our 1st POTUS unblemished as a participant in both those officially sanctioned wrongs. The chiefs remained in Philadelphia until GW arrived in Philadelphia and Congress reconvened. White supremacy, grounded in the Doctrine of Discovery the absurd claim by European Christians and their American descendants that they were more entitled to our lands than we were was the rationale for dispossession. Records Commission. The exploration vehicle/device dubbed Opportunity was sent into space in 2003, landed on the Red Planet six months later, and sent a steady stream of photos and intel back to NASA long after. New York, 1939. description ends 197203). The name in its original language(s) has been given variously as Conotocarius , Conotocaurious , Caunotaucarius , Conotocarious , Hanodaganears , and Hanadahguyus . This is the skeleton of Napoleon Bonaparte's favourite steed, "Marengo". Hundreds perished of starvation, disease and exposure a Haudenosaunee Trail of Tears. (Being an Appendix to Report of the Minister of Agriculture. 1.By GWs account the name Towntaker (variously rendered as Town-destroyer) was bestowed upon him by the Seneca chief Half-King in 1753, when he met that chief on his way to Fort Le Boeuf. These questions and many more were the subject of hot debate when Victor Arnautoffs thirteen-panel mural The Life of Washington became an object of local controversy, then a media firestorm. In Snitows and Kaufmans documentary some George Washington students and their parents argue that the images on the walls are a relic of the past and not history, that they instill a sense of trauma and shame and ought to be eradicated. "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you Hanadagyas (Town Destroyer): and to this day when that name is heard our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers. If you thought you could now talk calmly about Victor Arnautoff and his art, Americans Indians and George Washington, think again. The saw marks are still visible on the fence scars as enduring as those that the American Revolution and its aftermath left on the Native nations of Turtle Island (North America). For we are about to speak of things which are to us very great. While individual Iroquois tribes continued to launch raids over the next few years, the Revolutionary War broke the power of the Iroquois as a political unit. [1], Washington was given the name in 1753 by the Seneca leader Tanacharison. After Phelps departure the Seneca made another speech to GW accusing Phelps of fraud and of defaulting on the terms of the 1788 agreement (see Seneca Chiefs to GW, 10 Jan. 1791). Paul Chaa, a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C., calls romanticism a form of racism and observes that Americans have a secret obsession with Native Americans.One hundred years ago, D. H. Lawrence noted that white people aimed to extirpate Indians and then glorified them. A collection of moments during and after Barack Obama's presidency. To him we gave four miles round Niagara, as a place of Trade. You demanded a great Country to be given up to you. Speak plainly to us concerning this great business. The name in its original language(s) has been given variously as Conotocarius, Conotocaurious, Caunotaucarius, Conotocarious, Hanodaganears, and Hanadahguyus. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. The name in its original language (s) has been given variously as Conotocarius, Conotocaurious, Caunotaucarius, Conotocarious, Hanodaganears, and Hanadahguyus. This address was signed by the Allegheny Seneca chief, Cornplanter (for an identification, see GW to Timothy Pickering, 4 Sept. 1790), and the minor chiefs Half Town (Gahgeote, Achiout) and Great Tree (Kiandoch-gowa, Big Tree, Big Log, not to be confused with a more important Seneca chief named Big Tree or Great Tree; see Henry Knox to GW, 27 Dec. 1790, n.4). Completed in 1840, the statue was soon exhibited in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol and then moved to the Capitol's east lawn in 1843. We have found no proof the great grandfather ever got that nickname. . It is quite an image, and one difficult to reconcile with the man known by many Indians as the "Town Destroyer," a name originally claimed by his great-grandfather for the fighting he did along the Potomac frontier in the 1670s, and which our Washington appears to have appropriated and used when it served his purposes. Since that day, the Haudenosaunee have referred to all of the Presidents of the United States as Hanadagyas The Town Destroyer. The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca. January 31, 2023. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. our fathers where is the place which you have reserved for us to lie down on. Categories: New Anti-Colonialist Documentary Asks Big Questions, California Institute for Community, Arts & Nature, The CIAs Changing Take on the Climate Emergency, Emancipation, Hollywoods Best Civil War Film Ever. nD. For my 2018 video installation Handaga:yas (Town Destroyer), I projected video referencing this scorched-earth campaign onto a replica portrait bust of Washington. When we saw we were deceived and heard the invitation which you gave us to draw near to the fire you had kindled and talk with you concerning peace we made haste towards it. The first U.S. presidential election was held over a period of weeks from December 1788 to January 1789. It is an ideology that has been so thoroughly internalized that it has never prompted a national reckoning. The Land we live on our Fathers received from God, and they transmitted it to us, for our Children and we cannot part with it. Washington received his commission on October 31, 1753 and set out immediately. When that great Country was given up, there were but few Chiefs present, and they were compelled to give it up. Good luck with that: GWHS is seldom if ever open to the general public. When Seymour Hersh Strained to Keep Up With CounterPunch, Nichole Stephens, Administrative Assistant.