As the Revolutionary War ramped up, British and Mohawk fighters killed 30 settlers in Cherry Valley, New York. George Washington responded by sending four thousand troops into Haudenosaunee land. This was called the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition.

He called for “the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.”

They burned 40 towns.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Gaza war has come at a ‘very heavy price’ for his side. The military says more than a dozen soldiers have been killed in the territory since Friday, bringing the total of the ground assault to 154…. More than 20,000 people have been killed – mostly women and children, and 54,000 injured in Gaza since 7 October, the ministry says.”  – BBC, 24 Dec, 2023

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“Around 80 unidentified Palestinian bodies have been buried in a mass grave in Rafah, southern Gaza.” – BBC, 26 Dec 2023 

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Israel’s prime minister says the war on Hamas in Gaza will continue for “many more months.” He was pushing back Saturday against persistent international cease-fire calls following mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in the besieged enclave. – AP, 30 Dec 2023 

“The long painful journey to the west ended March 26th, 1839, with four-thousand silent graves reaching from the foothills of the Smoky Mountains to what is known as Indian territory in the West.”  – Private John Burnett, first-hand description of the Trail of Tears.

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“Israel Knows the Number of Calories Needed for Gazans’ Survival. How Few Is a War Crime? Gazans are collecting weeds to prepare meals and mothers cannot breastfeed because they are so weak. At food-distribution stations, hundreds of small children stand in long lines amid horrible crowding, holding pots, cups…” – Haaretz, 29 Dec 2023

“After several years at Fort Sumner, life became very hard for the Navajos. There was no wood for fires; there weren’t enough seeds to grow their crops, which would hardly grow in the poor ground, anyway; and insects ate what did come up.

If a rat was killed, the meat, with the bones and intestines, would be chopped into pieces, and twelve persons would share the meat, bones and intestines of one rat.

Some boys would wander off to where the mules and horses were corralled. There they would poke around in the manure to take undigested corn out of it. Then they would roast the corn in hot ashes to be eaten.” – Howard Gorman, Sr., Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period

Many massacres of hundreds of Native women and children – Wounded Knee, Big Hole, Whitestone Hill – are called “battles” by the US government and military to this day. The term “massacre” is typically reserved for instances when only white settlers were killed, and usually fewer than ten.

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In 1847, five Cayuse men killed 13 white settlers near Walla Walla, Washington. This is known as the Whitman Massacre. Calling for troops, President Polk waved a lock of Narcissa Whitman’s hair on the floor of the House of Representatives. Two years later, the US had taken over all of modern-day Oregon and Washington in retribution.

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“A draft document prepared by the Israeli intel ministry suggests an option to initially relocate Gaza’s population to tent cities in northern Sinai.” – Haaretz, 30 Oct 2023

“our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the United States, or remove beyond the Missisipi.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1803

“An Act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi.” – US Indian Removal Act of 1830

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“Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the besieged enclave, making way for the Israelis who could ‘make the desert bloom.’” – Aljazeera, 31 Dec 2023

“the Natives have not fulfilled the first commandment, to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Therefore, In a vacant soyle, hee that taketh possession of it, and bestoweth culture and husbandry upon it, his Right it is.” – Rev John Cotton, 1628

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