First came genocide, than came cultural plunder or maybe it was the other way around. New York, 1939. description ends 197203). For first one, and then another, come and take it away, by order of that people, who promised to secure it to us. If you thought you could now talk calmly about Victor Arnautoff and his art, Americans Indians and George Washington, think again. He had participated in an effort to suppress Indigenous peoples defending themselves in Virginia and Maryland. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. 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. We have already said how we came to join against you. Nov. 10thBenefit forThe Living New Deal Q & A with filmmakers + speakers. By August, the expedition was moving through Iroquois country, meeting almost no resistance. George Washington's favorite native fruit is ripe in the HFH orchard >> the pawpaw. His heart is in pain for them; but he percieves that the great God will try his firmness in doing what is right. Ottawa, 1891. description ends 15354). Records Commission (NHPRC) is part of the National The George Washington's 2008 arrival in Yokosuka was preceded several months by more than 240 Navy families. 6 vols. They then left us to consider the bargain till the next day. We will not conceal from you, that the great God, and not man has preserved the Corn planter from his own nation: for they ask continually, where is the Land which our children and their children after them are to lie down on? Gen, George Washington meets with representatives of the Iroquois nation before departing for Y. The Iroquois Confederacy, arguably the strongest Indian government during the colonial period, would never recover. After fighting with the Haudenosaunee in the French and Indian War, the colonists called upon the Haudenosaunee to a meeting at Ft. Pitt in 1775 to ask in their aide in the upcoming revolution against the British. A Seneca leader named Tanacharison called Washington HandaganyasTown Destroyer.. They are in the early stages of promoting the 55-minute film about the controversial murals at George Washington High School in the Richmond District. Our chiefs were unable to contend at that time, & therefore they sold the Lands up to the line which was then shewn to them as the line of that State. 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. Not all U.S. presidents are missed once they leave the White House. Plus: 'I Didn't See You There' on disability, 'Battleground' on abortion, and 'Good Night Oppy' on cute little Mars rovers. Town Destroyeran anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist film is likely to stir up all over again fundamental issues about censorship, trauma, genocide and ethnicity. 6.In addition to other alleged unpunished murders, this is undoubtedly a reference to the recent acquittal of Samuel Doyle by a Pennsylvania court for his reported role in the murder of a Seneca man (see Timothy Pickering to GW, 4 Dec. 1790, n.6). But the conflict revealed particularly ugly ideological divides, as amply shown inTown Destroyer. 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. David Humphreys Life of General Washington with George Washingtons Remarks. Athens, Ga., 1991. description ends 10). 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. Indigenous Values Initative. | Benjamin Fanjoy/The Standard Town Destroyer is playing as part of the Mill Valley Film Festival with a screening Saturday afternoon at The Roxie (and with an extended run at the Roxie November 4-10). ERKURIES BEATTY, OF THE 4TH PENN LINE. our fathers where is the place which you have reserved for us to lie down on. Town Destroyer opens Fri/4 at the Roxie, with the filmmakers and special guests present at all shows. These are to us very great things. In 1779, General George Washington suspended the colonial war against England and moved to extinguish the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois) with his "Sullivan-Clinton Scorched Earth Campaign." Washington's soldiers were paid with land. Conotocaurius (Town Destroyer) was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois Native Americans in 1753. But they said they would not take advantage of that, and were willing to pay us for it after the manner of their Ancestors. But your anger against us must by this time be cooled, and altho our Strength has not encreased nor your power become less we ask you to consider calmly were the terms dictated to us reasonable and just? It did not leave our 1st POTUS unblemished as a participant in both those officially sanctioned wrongs. Washington referred to himself as "Conotocaurious" in a letter he wrote to Andrew Montour dated October 10, 1755, in which he tried to manipulate the Oneida to resettle on the Potomac: In 1779 during the American Revolutionary War, the Sullivan Expedition, under Washington's orders,[6] destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages in New York, partially in response to Iroquois participation in attacks on the Wyoming Valley in July 1778 and Cherry Valley in November 1778. Sun. Courtesy:JASON SZENES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock. "It was disastrous to the Iroquois," says Barbara Graymont, author of The Iroquois in the American Revolution. This resulted in a companion mural from African American artist Dewey Crumpler, entitledMulti-Ethnic Heritage, being commissioned for an adjacent corridor. What the Senecca Nation promise they faithfully perform; and when you refused obedience to that King he ordered us to assist his beloved men in making you sober. The former vice president has become the Democratic front-runner with primary victories across the country. But most of the pro-lifers here seem to sincerely concur with such concepts as having a baby is more of a way to empower women. (Like every other abortion critic, however, these nice people never, ever mention mens responsibility in the matter.). On display since San Francisco's George Washington High School opened in 1936, it offers a view of the Founding Father both celebratory and critical, referencing his involvements in slavery and Native American genocide. It is translated as Town Taker, Burner of Towns 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. But the Iroquois Indians of the time bestowed on Washington another, not-so-flattering epithet: Conotocarious, or "Town Destroyer. THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNER JEWISH FILM INSTITUTE, The California Film Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Crushed power. The name in its original language(s) has been given variously as Conotocarius , Conotocaurious , Caunotaucarius , Conotocarious , Hanodaganears , and Hanadahguyus . Pero los indios iroqueses de la poca le dieron a Washington otro epteto no tan halagador: Conotocarious, o "Town Destroyer " . 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. 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 . George Washington for sure had that nickname. To the great Councillor of the thirteen fires. The Proposed TikTok Ban Goes Too Far. As the first president of the United States, he established America's nation-to-nation relationship with its Indigenous people. It is just to punish murder with death, but the Seneccas will not deliver up their people to men, who disregard the treaties of their own nation. We delivered up two men, accordingly. Signed at Philadelphia the first day of December. Speak plainly to us concerning this great business. "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. 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. Washington Square Park Arc, 2020. In April 1754, en route to the Forks of the Ohio, Lieutenant George Washington sent a request for aid and counsel to Tanaghrison, an Ohio Iroquois leader who acted as an intermediary between Virginians and Ohio Indians. When Seymour Hersh Strained to Keep Up With CounterPunch, Nichole Stephens, Administrative Assistant. The first U.S. presidential election was held over a period of weeks from December 1788 to January 1789. Advertise . It also illuminates a work of. The Onondagas, who were honoring the neutrality agreement, were not prepared for the attack. The NASA scientists interviewed more than do their bit to anthropomorphise our heroine, particularly in choosing various golden oldies as Oppys (and their own) wake-up song, including the B-52s Roam, ABBAs SOS, plus Born to be Wild, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, etc. He wants to remind Washington that Cornplanter understands that he is a powerful warrior and has defeated the Seneca in the past. 53 minutes SDH Captioned>> Directed by Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman Produced by Snitow-Kaufman Productions Executive Producer: Peggy Berryhill (Muscogee) Writers: Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman Conotocaurius (Town Destroyer) was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois peoples in 1753. Commissioned in the late 1960s to create a mural at George Washington High School titled Multi-Ethnic Heritage, Crumpler honors Blacks and Indians. The French came among us and built Niagara. We are community supported journalism. In a letter written by tribal leaders in 1790, Washington is described as an unjust killer and referred to as the "Town Destroyer." Crops such as corn, beans, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, and melons grew in an abundance that astonished the invading soldiers. this morning set of about Day Break on the same line of march and went about 6 Miles when we halted, Capt. Nonetheless, the murals stirred little debate until the 1960s, when some Black students protested aspects they deemed offensive. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area. MVFF is an acclaimed eleven-day cinema event celebrating the best in US . facts, Among the many discussions in the podcast, Estes brings up George Washington's reputation amongst indigenous people as "town destroyer" Washington was known as "town destroyer." In the summer of 1788 Livingston accompanied Phelps to a meeting with the Seneca chiefs at Buffalo Creek, and on 8 July Phelps concluded an agreement to purchase the Indian rights to the eastern third of the area purchased from Massachusetts (Livermore, Early American Land Companies, description begins Shaw Livermore. In mid-2019 the School Board threw gas on the firestorm by voting to destroy the works outright. r e. s w. w. w. Tow. This project is supported by the By Teka Lark (February 18, 2020) This week we're honoring George Washington or Conotocaurius (Town Destroyer) as the Iroquois called him, a man who enslaved 316 people and brought nine of them to the White House (Coard, Philadephia Tribune, 2018). On July 9, 1776, General George Washington amassed his soldiers in New York City. What distinguishes her documentary is that she offers considerable insight into grassroots activism on both sides of the fence. What Happens When Art Gets Competitive on Television? The Then and Now project examines three case studies of dispossession: the On the one hand, things were said like If you support this mural, you have a colonized mentality and (on a signboard) Stop Protecting White Supremacy. On the other, the whole situation was termed identity politics gone off the rails, and the suggestion that the murals were traumatizing an easy way to justify the erasure of things you dont like.. 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. To him we gave four miles round Niagara, as a place of Trade. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. But if Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman have their way, George Washington will also be remembered as "the town destroyer." That's the title of a new documentary that they have written,. Since that day, the Haudenosaunee have referred to all of the Presidents of the United States as Hanadagyas The Town Destroyer. should Doyle be convicted, there was little doubt of his being capitally punished (Pa. Archives, description begins Samuel Hazard et al., eds. Following the 2017 clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Trump presciently observed: So, this week its Robert E. Lee [] I wonder, is it George Washington next week [] Thomas Jefferson the week after [] Where does it stop? The short answer is that it doesnt stop until the US contends not only with its history of slavery but also its history of dispossession. They told us he resided beyond the great waters where the sun first rises: That he was a King whose power no people could resist, and that his goodness was bright as that sun. The Onondaga and the Haudenosaunee saw the colonists growing and uniting to become a new government called the United States of America. January 31, 2023. Both Washington and Jefferson enslaved and waged war against Indigenous nations to dispossess them of their homelands. Roxie Theater: Town Destroyer - Mission Local Gunman robs taco truck at 14th & Harrison at lunch hour Wind splits giant sequoia that may date to 1884 90-unit Irving St. housing OKed despite toxin fears Local news needs you! Pete Galindo, the director of the Great Wall Project, talks about the half-mile long Great Wall of LA which depicts the history of the city, including lynching. Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955. 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. Streets mission to New York probably contributed to GWs decision to send Timothy Pickering on a special mission to pacify the Seneca a few weeks later. Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 18521949. More decades passed before the issue flared up again, though this time it seemed the criticisms were coming less from individual students than outside organizations. Few visitors to the museum had ever heard of the Sullivan Campaign, or knew that most of New York state was our original homeland. 9 ser., 138 vols. copy, MHi: Timothy Pickering Papers; Filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman . This battle isnt over yet, but no one will blame you for feeling combat fatigue. The spring of 1780 saw the surviving Haudenosaunee forced to rebuild their lives with broken families and destroyed villages. 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. Its minders at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena demonstrate a very paternal mindset, saying things like Theres energy in its veins, it needs to be given love, and otherwise viewing Oppy more like a genius dog than a technological tool. On the day on which we finished the treaty at Donald Trump recently condemned these actions in a speech delivered in front of his latest provocative backdrop, Mount Rushmore, in Lakota territory illegally seized by the US in the 1870s. Cornplanter had intended to make the trip at an earlier date but had been delayed by the alarm among the Indians caused by the murder of two Seneca men on Pine Creek (see GW to Pickering, 4 Sept. 1790). Answer (1 of 4): The most famous nickname (really, more of an honorary title) associated with George Washington was The Father of His Country. 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. Would You Pay to Live in Facebooks Metaverse? 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. 5.Samuel Street, reportedly born in New England, kept a store at Niagara. And god knows he doesnt care about anyone elses rights. We mean to open our hearts before you, and we earnestly desire, that you will let us clearly understand, what you resolve to do. What Colour was Napoleons horse? According to historian George Bancroft, they were having a cordial visit and then the old chief, pointing to Washington, spoke the amazing prophecy. Its time to reckon with a US founding father who waged genocidal warfare against Indigenous nations. 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. ), Timothy Pickering to GW, 4 Dec. 1790, n.6, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-07-02-0005, From Washington to Seneca Chiefs [29 December 1790], All correspondence between Washington and Seneca Chiefs, National Historical Publications and 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. Produced and Directed by Alan. An Arab stallion with a light grey . 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. Wanting to remain neutral but forced to choose sides, some Haudenosaunee nations fought alongside the colonists during the war. Town Destroyer; George Washington/Nicknames. We recollect that you did not promise to punish those who killed our people, and we now ask, Was it intended that your people should kill the Seneccas, and not only remain unpunished by you: but be protected by you against the next of kin?6. The Haudenosaunee pledged neutrality with this statement, We see this as a fight between father and son. What they agreed to has bound our nation. hidden? The film highlights the debate about controversial murals at George Washington High School. 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. He is silent for he has nothing to answer. In 2019, he had a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA. Through its grants program, the NHPRC supports a wide range of activities to In his orders to campaign leader Major General John Sullivan (after whom Sullivan Street in Manhattan is named), he wrote: The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. Gil Herkimer Roads to Niagara Year 2000 Categories: facts, texts Updated:May 29, 2004 Share on TwitterFacebookLinkedInPreviousNext Astonished at what we heard from every quarter, with hearts akeing with compassion for our women and children, we were thus compelled to give up all our Country North of the line of Pensylvania, and East of the Chenesco river up to the forks, and East of a South line drawn from that fork to the Pensylvania line. The men who claimed this promise said that you were children and had no Guns that when they had shaken you, you would submit. 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. Innocent men of our nation are killed one after another, and of our best families: But none of your people who have committed the murders have been punished. At least thats the impression we get from this very slick package, which numbers Spielbergs production company among its makers and isnt so far in cuddly tone from hisE.T. 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. Roxie Theater: Town Destroyer November 4, 2022 @ 6:45 pm - 8:45 pm Wed. Nov. 9thBenefit forCalifornia Institute for Community, Arts & Nature Q & A with filmmakers + speakers TBA. Nicole Flatterys Nothing Special Tackles Authorship inside Warhols Factory, Frieze Editors Picks: Jafar Panahis No Bears. But the title stuck even tighter than the Seneca chief could have imagined. to GW, 15 Aug. 1789, note 1. The voice of the Senecca Nation speaks to you the great Councillor, in whose heart, the wise men of the thirteen fires, have placed their wisdom. America's love affair with mass murderers has a long history - whether it unfolds as empathizing with Ted Bundy or as the canonization of town destroyer George Washington as a founding father . On 1 April 1788 that state sold the preemptive rights to these six million acres to Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps. "I am well persuaded," John Sullivan, the leader of the venture, bragged to Congress afterward, "that, except one town situated near the Allegana, about 50 miles from the Chinessee, there is not a single town left in the country of the Five nations." Categories: Conotocaurious (Town Destroyer) was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois Native Americans in 1753. The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. tr. light grey. George Washington (February 22, 1732 - December 14, 1799) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and served as the nation's first president (1789-1797). Hundreds perished of starvation, disease and exposure a Haudenosaunee Trail of Tears. Staked Plains. Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, They told us they must have the whole: That it was already ceded to them by the great King at the time of making peace with you, and was their own. 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. Note: The annotations to this document, and any other es. "It actually crushed their military power." In the American Revolutionary War, General Washington led Patriot forces to victory over the British and their allies. The following year, he received a letter. As a Mohawk citizen of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy the oldest living democracy in the Western Hemisphere when I see statues of Washington, like the towering equestrian monument at the Virginia Capitol in Richmond, or the colossus in front of Federal Hall in New York, I see not only a founding father, but also a genocidal one. The brutal 1778 Cherry Valley Massacre prompted a wide-ranging punitive expedition that broke Iroquois power.