All Events This event has passed. Great Tree was shot in the leg during his stay in Philahdelphia (Wallace, Death and Rebirth of the Seneca, description begins Anthony F. C. Wallace. The 13 murals at George Washington High School were painted in 1936 by leftwing artist Victor Arnautoff, a student of Diego Rivera. He wants to remind Washington that Cornplanter understands that he is a powerful warrior and has defeated the Seneca in the past. What was George Washington's favorite fruit? Longtime local nonfiction filmmaking team Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman (Blacks & Jews, Secrets of Silicon Valley, etc.) What is role of the artist in reflecting America to itself? Years later when George Washington was elected President of the newly formed United States, Seneca Chief Corn Planter addressed President Washington in 1790. | Benjamin Fanjoy/The Standard The elder Washington's reputation was remembered and when they met his great-grandson in 1753 they called George Washington by the same name, Conotocarious.[2][3]. It also opens Fri/4 at the Roxie, with some screenings attended by Davenport and producer Keith Wilson. If art (or history) is altered to blunt painful truths, isnt that dishonesty, whether coming from the political left or right? Sign up for email updates on the latest frieze talks, fairs and events. As one observer puts it, Nuance is sort of a quaint notion now.The Life of Washingtonwas intended as a teaching toolbut are only positive lessons allowed now, even when history itself was cruel and unfair? George Washington is a polarizing character in American Indian history. We will not join either side. 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! Roxie Theater: Town Destroyer November 4, 2022 @ 6:45 pm - 8:45 pm 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. that assembled at them told us you were all brothers, the children of one great Father who regarded also the red people as his children. The title by which Washington was known to Native nations, Handaga:yas or Town Destroyer, was one he inherited from his great-grandfather, John Washington, a slave-owning planter and colonel in the Virginia militia who, during Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, had the chiefs of several tribes killed. 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). 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. Non Military History of the War of the Rebellion. In keeping with explicit orders from Washington, the Americans set ablaze every village in their path. The Mohawks saw the colonial settlements in violation of the Proclamation Line and trespassers in their territory. orA.I. On this edition of Your Call, we rebroadcast our discussion about Town Destroyer, a documentary that focuses on murals at San Francisco's George Washington High School, which praise Washington and critically depict him overseeing his slaves and directing the bloody seizure of Native lands. Nonetheless, the murals stirred little debate until the 1960s, when some Black students protested aspects they deemed offensive. 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. In Wolf Nation, my 2019 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, I marked the 240th anniversary of Washingtons ruthless invasion with an augmented reality version of this work. It involved members of both the Susquehannah and the Piscataway, an Algonquian tribe that lived across the Potomac River from Mount Vernon. Degrowth or Debunk: Do Degrowth proponents have a strategy? The spring of 1780 saw the surviving Haudenosaunee forced to rebuild their lives with broken families and destroyed villages. It was surrendered to you as the price of peace and we ought to have peace, and possession, of the little Land which you then left us. 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. It has also been translated as 'Town Taker', 'Burner of Towns', 'Devourer of Villages', or 'he destroys the town'. 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. The film highlights the debate about controversial murals at George Washington High School. UCLA Professor Kelley adds that its not about choosing sides and that no one person or group can tell the story.. 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. In retrospect, no one should be surprised: Trump is exactly the sort of person who will always be able to get an unwanted pregnancy handled, legally or not, as People With Money always have. that the King had ceded the lands to the thirteen fires, The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, David Humphreys Life of General Washington,, David Humphreys Life of General Washington with George Washingtons Remarks., Early American Land Companies: Their Influence on Corporate Development, Report on Canadian Archives . Cynthia LowensBattlegroundoffers some insight on that score. Several of the latter have a Bay Area slant, notably two opening this Fri/4 at SFs Roxie Theater. 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. ", 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. Courtesy: the artist and Peabody Essex Museum, In 1779, Washington launched a full-scale invasion of Iroquoia, our extensive homelands. You demanded a great Country to be given up to you. When you gave us peace we called you father, because you promised to secure us in the possession of our Land. 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." 1890. 6 vols. Crushed power. Town Destroyer will shed new light on our first president. The name in its original language(s) has been given variously as Caunotaucarius, Conotocarious, Hanodaganears, and Hanadahguyus. Town Destroyer opens Fri/4 at the Roxie, with the filmmakers and special guests present at all shows. the United States, and research and development projects to bring historical records to the Town Destroyer; George Washington/Nicknames. 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 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. 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. What they agreed to has bound our nation. Near the end of the documentary, Jessica Young, a Native American at the New College of Florida, says shes unsure which side shes on. Conotocaurius (Town Destroyer) was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois peoples in 1753. Several years after the Revolutionary War, Seneca chiefs told Washington, "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you Town Destroyer; and to this day when the name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale and our children cling to the necks of their mothers." 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 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. Your commissioners when they drew the line which seperated the land then given up to you, from that which you agreed should remain to be ours did, most solemly promise, that we should be secured in the peaceable possession of the lands which we inhabited, East, & North, of that line. No such document has been found, but the presence of the cover letter to Wadsworth in the Knox Papers suggests that Wadsworth gave the document to GW, who referred it to Knox. His mural, "Life of Washington," is widely . Conotocaurius (Town Destroyer, Seneca: Handaganyas) was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois peoples in 1753. 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. Battlegroundis almost entirely limited to the game-changing year of 2020, when RBGs death, Amy Coney Barretts appointment, and other events turned a tide. "[8][9], Last edited on 11 February 2023, at 23:33, George Washington: A Biographical Companion, From George Washington to Andrew Montour, 10 October 1755, From George Washington to Major General John Sullivan, 31 May 1779, "Madam Sacho: How One Iroquois Woman Survived the American Revolution", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Town_Destroyer&oldid=1138845464, This page was last edited on 11 February 2023, at 23:33. He was likewise unsuccessful in obtaining a settlement from the U.S. government on his own. The Iroquois Confederacy, arguably the strongest Indian government during the colonial period, would never recover. Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. . Few people are more revered in the U.S. American lexicon than George Washington. This resulted in a companion mural from African American artist Dewey Crumpler, entitledMulti-Ethnic Heritage, being commissioned for an adjacent corridor. That they do not remember him with fondness is understandable. But we are free men, if any choose to fight for you, they may.. Allegedly both George Washington and his Great Grandfather, John Washington shared an unusual nickname. A dispute erupts at a San Francisco high school over Depression-era murals about the life of George Washington: slaveowner, military leader, land speculator, President, and a man Native leaders. Larger questions arose: Is arts purpose to provoke, or placate? 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. 4.On John Livingstons role in the New York-Genesee Land Companys 999year lease with Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca chiefs, see John Livingston The Onondaga and the Haudenosaunee saw the colonists growing and uniting to become a new government called the United States of America. The board rescinded its decision, perhaps because it was embarrassed by the national publicity that depicted its decision as a form of censorship. These are to us very great things. Conotocaurius ( Town Destroyer) was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois peoples in 1753. 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. George Washington (1700s), also known as Hanadaguyus , had become famous as an Indian killer during the French and Indian War. We have already said how we came to join against you. 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. Conotocaurious (Town Destroyer) was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois Native Americans in 1753. Washington himself was given or assumed an Indian name, Conoto carious, meaning "Town Destroyer" or "Devourer of Villages," and an Indian messenger who arrived at Fort Harmar in July 1788 was identified as "George Washington, a Delaware." He was not the only Indian to bear Washington's name. Gil Herkimer Roads to Niagara Year 2000 Categories: facts, texts Updated:May 29, 2004 Share on TwitterFacebookLinkedInPreviousNext 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. 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. The George Washington's 2008 arrival in Yokosuka was preceded several months by more than 240 Navy families. 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. Snitow and Kaufman try to walk a fine line and to offer a balanced perspective in their 58-minute documentary which includes on camera interviews with well known historians such as UCLA Professor Robin D. G. Kelley, plus famed San Francisco muralist Dewey Crumpler, along with community activists, local political figures, members of Indians tribes close to home and from far away. Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, The name in its original language(s) has been Courtesy: JASON SZENES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock. It is interesting to see close-up the strategizing of such groups, including their straight-up asking citizens to be single-issue voters, even if they have to hold their noses in pulling the lever for last-minute ally Trump. . David Humphreys Life of General Washington with George Washingtons Remarks. Athens, Ga., 1991. description ends 10). He demanded it: He insisted on his demand and declared that he would have it all. 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. When Seymour Hersh Strained to Keep Up With CounterPunch, Nichole Stephens, Administrative Assistant. According to its production company: "TOWN DESTROYER explores how to look at art and history at a time of polarized national debate over the power of images, racism, trauma, and what . In the American Revolutionary War, General Washington led Patriot forces to victory over the British and their allies. Like the statue of Christopher Columbus targeted in Boston last month, it was beheaded and the crown finials of its surrounding fence sawn off. Our counsellors and warriors are men, and cannot be afraid; but their hearts are grieved with the fears of our women and children, and desire that it may be buried so deep as to be heard no more.. 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. 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. He then threatened us with immediate war if we did not comply. 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. On June 4, 1779, the General of the Revolutionary Army, George Washington, violated the treaty and ordered the invasion of the territory of the Iroquois confederation. To the great Councillor of the thirteen fires. All rights reserved. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.. From his headquarters in Middlebrook, N.J., Washington authorized the "total destruction and devastation" of the Iroquois settlements across upstate New York so "that country may not merely be overrun but destroyed.". January 31, 2023. But before we speak to you of this, we Do this and so long2 as the Land shall remain that beloved name shall live in the heart of every Senecca. 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. Full schedule and info here. After all, the issues go back to 1779 when George Washington ordered the destruction of the Iroquois villages. By the standards of the era, the work was indeed pretty progressive in content, mixing a standard, celebratory depiction of early US history with images that clearly indicted treatment of Native Americans, the institution of slavery, and so forth. You have compelled us to do that which has made us ashamed. 2.At this point the copyist inadvertently repeated the words and so long.. As the first president of the United States, he established America's nation-to-nation relationship with its Indigenous people. receive for his endeavors to deceive us, a peice of land ten miles in width west of the Chenesco river, and near forty miles in length extending to lake Ontario; and the lines of this tract have been run accordingly tho no part of it is within the bounds which limit his purchase. 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. 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. HAWARA, West Bank (AP) Israeli troops fired stun grenades and blocked hundreds of Israeli left-wing activists from staging a solidarity rally on Friday in a Palestinian town that was set . His heart is in pain for them; but he percieves that the great God will try his firmness in doing what is right. For GWs reply, see GW to the Seneca Chiefs, 29 Dec. 1790. Elaborate reenactments of the robots experience via Industrial Light & Magic wizardry are accompanied by a treacly, heart-tugging orchestral score. Town Destroyer? "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. 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,. Tags: George Washington, Revolutionary War, history. In mid-2019 the School Board threw gas on the firestorm by voting to destroy the works outright. We mean to open our hearts before you, and we earnestly desire, that you will let us clearly understand, what you resolve to do. It has also been translated as "Town Taker", "Burner of Towns", "Devourer of Villages . We asked each other what we had done to deserve such severe chastisement. 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. Pawpaws. 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."