Thanksgiving Day ''was first officially proclaimed by the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 to commemorate the massacre of 700 Indian men, women and children''. This was confirmed by William B. Newell, an Algonquian man of 84 winters and former chairman of the University of Connecticut Anthropology Department. His sources included: The Documents of Holland, Thirteen Volume Colonial Documentary History, letters and reports from the colonial officials to their superiors and the King of England, as well as the private papers of Sir William Johnson, British Indian Agent of thirty years for the colony of New York.
The remaining Pequotoog who were not at the nickommo celebrating were also subjected to similar atrocities at a second massacre in May. Of the survivors that remained, one-third were shipped to the Caribbean as slaves, one-third were sent to the Narragansett territory in exile, and one-third were banished to Mahican territory.
During this period Indian agents were given orders to keep the Indians divided. Agents were essentially white Anglo ''overseers'' whose primary purpose ''was to encourage Indian communities to accept assimilation tactics and religious conversion, learning English and being redefined from vibrant independent nations to Indian townships'' according to the educators. (I have scheduled separate columns to discuss the aspects of religious conversions.)
Not only were 700 of the Pequotoog massacred, and later more numbers added to the count - and even after the remaining Pequotoog were exiled or forced into slavery - even the name ''Peqout'' was banned throughout the territory. All this for their resistance to conform to the Puritan Reformation.
Ruth Duncan/Little Owl, ACQTC Thunder Clan Headwoman (who traces her own ancestry to 1625 in Connecticut) has written several beautiful poems and legends about these Pequotoog massacres, as she understands how ''it would be difficult to imagine the horror that was felt by other indigenous people...who lived on the other side of the river.''
The Dutch/English militias raided dozens of Indian villages in Connecticut and killed 500 more in just a single massacre. These massacres were conducted usually in the dark of night when the men were unarmed and women and children were asleep. This was no war, it was an act of death squads more inhuman than those experienced in the Balkans in the 20th century. The leaders today who are guilty of war crimes of ethnic cleansing are being punished, but the people of the genocide against the Algonquians lived on and their policies still exist to some degree.
In loving memory of all those men, women, elders and children who were needlessly slaughtered and their deaths disguised as an act of war, I write these words to remind the Anglos of Connecticut and every other minority of Connecticut of these historical facts.
Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated by Indian people of New England. It is a Day of Mourning for the Confederacies of the Dawnland. As America feasts, we fast and give offerings to those who were killed.
Namitch neetompaog.
The remaining Pequotoog who were not at the nickommo celebrating were also subjected to similar atrocities at a second massacre in May. Of the survivors that remained, one-third were shipped to the Caribbean as slaves, one-third were sent to the Narragansett territory in exile, and one-third were banished to Mahican territory.
During this period Indian agents were given orders to keep the Indians divided. Agents were essentially white Anglo ''overseers'' whose primary purpose ''was to encourage Indian communities to accept assimilation tactics and religious conversion, learning English and being redefined from vibrant independent nations to Indian townships'' according to the educators. (I have scheduled separate columns to discuss the aspects of religious conversions.)
Not only were 700 of the Pequotoog massacred, and later more numbers added to the count - and even after the remaining Pequotoog were exiled or forced into slavery - even the name ''Peqout'' was banned throughout the territory. All this for their resistance to conform to the Puritan Reformation.
Ruth Duncan/Little Owl, ACQTC Thunder Clan Headwoman (who traces her own ancestry to 1625 in Connecticut) has written several beautiful poems and legends about these Pequotoog massacres, as she understands how ''it would be difficult to imagine the horror that was felt by other indigenous people...who lived on the other side of the river.''
The Dutch/English militias raided dozens of Indian villages in Connecticut and killed 500 more in just a single massacre. These massacres were conducted usually in the dark of night when the men were unarmed and women and children were asleep. This was no war, it was an act of death squads more inhuman than those experienced in the Balkans in the 20th century. The leaders today who are guilty of war crimes of ethnic cleansing are being punished, but the people of the genocide against the Algonquians lived on and their policies still exist to some degree.
In loving memory of all those men, women, elders and children who were needlessly slaughtered and their deaths disguised as an act of war, I write these words to remind the Anglos of Connecticut and every other minority of Connecticut of these historical facts.
Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated by Indian people of New England. It is a Day of Mourning for the Confederacies of the Dawnland. As America feasts, we fast and give offerings to those who were killed.
Namitch neetompaog.
