He told us he was sent by Congress to do this for us and we fear he has deceived us on the writing he obtained from us: For since the time of our giving that power, a man of the name of Phelps has come among us, and claimed our whole Country northward of the line of Pensylvania under purchase from that Livingston to whom he said he had paid twenty thousand dollars for it.4 He said also he had bought likewise from the Council of the thirteen fires, and paid them twenty thousand dollars more for the same. Many colonial homes were attacked. 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. (The Iroquois dubbed him "Town Destroyer.") Town Destroyers armies burned and plundered 60 of our towns and hundreds of our farms, fields, orchards and livestock, forcing our people to evacuate. "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. They then left us to consider the bargain till the next day. TOWN DESTROYER less than 1 minute read To the Irouqois, General George Washington was Ha-no-da-ga-nears, which means Town Destroyer, and this remained the name they gave to all Presidents of the United States. 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. But the issue was more complex than that, with painfully strong feelings on all sides, many of whose participants more typically found themselves on thesameside. For first one, and then another, come and take it away, by order of that people, who promised to secure it to us. 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. It has also been translated as "Town Taker", "Burner of Towns", "Devourer of Villages . Nov. 6thBenefit forThe Association of Ramaytush Ohlone Q & A with filmmakers + Jonathan Cordero, chair of Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. es. On 1 April 1788 that state sold the preemptive rights to these six million acres to Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps. Town Destroyer is a 2022 documentary that discusses the art, history, struggle, and politics around the Victor Arnautoff murals at George Washington High School. The National Historical Publications and He wants to remind Washington that Cornplanter understands that he is a powerful warrior and has defeated the Seneca in the past. 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). We see groups of collegiate women who travel to a D.C. March for Life in January 2020 to save the babies. They demand equal rights for unborn humans, hoping not just that abortion will become illegal, but abortion will become unthinkable. Organizations like Students for Life of America and the Susan B. Anthony List are very well-organized, and there is no questioning the earnestness of their members. public. Conotocaurious - Iroquois for Town Destroyer, also translated as Town Taker, Burner of Towns, or Devourer of Villages, was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois Indians. The Current TikTok Ban Doesnt Go Far Enough. To the great Councillor of the thirteen fires. The 13 murals at George Washington High School were painted in 1936 by leftwing artist Victor Arnautoff, a student of Diego Rivera. 1788-89 United States presidential election [ edit] Washington is inaugurated as president of the United States in 1789. 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. 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. Town Destroyer A high profile battle erupts over images of African American slaves and Native Americans in New Deal-era murals at a San Francisco high school. What Happens When Art Gets Competitive on Television? This devastating history has been papered over with myth, in a familiar national narrative established by writers such as James Fenimore Cooper, whose father, like Washington, was a successful speculator in Native land. are you determined to crush us? 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. The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series. The Haudenosaunee pledged neutrality with this statement, We see this as a fight between father and son. Hundreds perished of starvation, disease and exposure a Haudenosaunee Trail of Tears. 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). Signed at Philadelphia the first day of December. If the British took the . Police funding, tax cuts, and spending equity will be on the table as the supes take on a brutal budget season. When that great Country was given up, there were but few Chiefs present, and they were compelled to give it up. 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. 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. He then threatened us with immediate war if we did not comply. texts. Indigenous Values Initative. You have compelled us to do that which has made us ashamed. Longtime local nonfiction filmmaking team Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman (Blacks & Jews, Secrets of Silicon Valley, etc.) light grey. 'Town Destroyer' Versus the Iroquois Indians Forty Indian villagesand a powerful indigenous nationwere razed on the orders of George Washington By Johannah Cornblatt | June 27, 2008, at. Washington Square Park Arc, 2020. 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. 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. 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All Events This event has passed. When a circus tent gets erected in his Oakland neighborhood, it causes him to muse on the legacy of the freak show, and how his own status as a differently-abled person echoes both the conspicuousness and invisibility of those whose physicality makes them societal outliers. We saw that we were wrong: we wished for peace. What happens when it no longer reflects current societal views? left as is, but with explanatory text?) When your army entered the Country of the Six Nations, we called you the 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 neck of their mothers.1 Our Councillors and warriors are men, and can not be afraid; but their hearts are grieved with the fears of our women & children, and desire, that it may be buried so deep, as to be heard no more. The Speech of the Corn-planter, Half-town and the Great-Tree chiefs of the Senecca Nation. It opens with audio from a closed-door meeting Trump, Steve Bannon and others held with leaders of the religious right forty days before the 2016 election. 1790. 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). Archives. 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. Washington received his commission on October 31, 1753 and set out immediately. Town Destroyer, also translated as Town Taker, Burner of Towns, or Devourer of Villages, was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois Indians. 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. 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. George Washington is called "The Father of our Nation" and by some "Cincinnatus" but the Iroquois had a nickname for him as well "Conotocaurius"(Town Destroyer) We talk about the Indian wars of the late 19th century but the late 18th century had Indian wars too and George Washington was the man behind it George Washington had complicated relationships with Native Americans. copy, DNA: RG 233, First Congress, 17891791, Records of the Office of the Clerk, Records of Reports from Executive Departments (War Department), Confidential Reports; If you thought you could now talk calmly about Victor Arnautoff and his art, Americans Indians and George Washington, think again. In 2019, he had a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA. 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. But we are free men, if any choose to fight for you, they may.. When your army entered the Country of the Six Nations, we called you the 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 neck of their mothers.1Our Councillors and warriors are men, and can not be afraid; but their hearts are grieved with the fears of our women When the Sun goes down, he opens his heart before God, and earlier than that Sun appears again upon the Hills, he gives thanks for his protection during the night, for he feels, that among men become desperate by their danger, it is God only that can preserve him. In recent times, probably no San Francisco news story has traveled as far or as wide as the story about Victor Arnautoffs murals which subvert the myths and depict the life of George Washington as a foe of the Iroquois and an owner of Black slaves. [7] In 1790, the Seneca chief Cornplanter told President Washington: "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you Town Destroyer and to this day when your name is heard our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers. 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. And at this moment his wife and children are lying on the Ground in want of food. The name in its original language(s) has been Near the end of the documentary, Jessica Young, a Native American at the New College of Florida, says shes unsure which side shes on. George Washington is a polarizing character in American Indian history. Conotocaurius (Town Destroyer, Seneca: Handaganyas) was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois peoples in 1753. Battlegroundhas already had a brief run in theaters, but now is available for streaming on digital platforms including iTunes. 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. This is an analysis of a controversy that was all over the local and national news not so long ago even if it seems very long ago, as it was just-pre-COVID. To the Irouqois, General George Washington was Ha-no-da-ga-nears, which means Town Destroyer, and this remained the name they gave to all Presidents of the United States. He suggests that Arnautoffs work ought to be preserved, not destroyed and used as a vehicle to teach students about both the past and the present. fort Stanwix, commissioners from Pensylvania, told our chiefs, that they had come there to purchase from us, all the Lands belonging to us within the lines of their State, and they told us that their line would strike the river Susquehanna below Tioga branch. You have said we were in your hand, and that by closing it, you could crush us to nothing. The Then and Now project examines three case studies of dispossession: the (The Iroquois dubbed him "Town Destroyer.") But some present-day students, parents, and observers found those depictions . . David Humphreys Life of General Washington with George Washingtons Remarks. Athens, Ga., 1991. description ends 10). 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. He signed the message "Conotocarious," or Town Devourer. The first U.S. presidential election was held over a period of weeks from December 1788 to January 1789. Join us for a free screening of TOWN DESTROYER - a new documentary about the furor over Victor Arnautoff's WPA murals at George Washington High School. First came genocide, than came cultural plunder or maybe it was the other way around. He lives in New York. The supreme executive council of Pennsylvania had informed Cornplanter and the other Seneca chiefs on 30 Oct. 1790 that You demanded a great Country to be given up to you. 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." The French came among us and built Niagara. SFist spoke to the duo . But no doubt more than a few young people will get turned on to robotics, space exploration, et al.