Maranatha Baptist Bible College A Forgotten Murderer Submitted to: William Licht Native American History HUHI 335 March 8, 2013 By Emily K. Ranch RANCH 2 Adolf Hitler is well-known for his merciless tactics with the Jews and many others in World War II. When people cite the death toll for Hitler, they generally focus on the 6 million Jews. But he was also responsible for a large number of civilian deaths, the deaths of Russian POWs, and the Jews that were killed in the years leading up to the implementation of the "final solution.” 1Although the impact of Hitler and other vicious dictators are widely known, many men who have targeted nations and killed on a smaller scale are usually over looked. Although the degree to which they killed may be smaller the evil in their tactics should never be forgotten. One such man is William Kieft. Little known and generally overlooked, this Dutch governor in early American colonization had a distinct hand in started the Wappinger War, also known as the William Kieft War, which ruthlessly massacred many Indians. The Wappinger War could have been avoided and many lives saved had it not been for William Kieft. William Kieft was born in Holland around the 1600’s where little is known about his origins. He arrived in Manhattan on March 28, 1638. When Kieft, an energetic and malevolent man, became governor in the Dutch colonies he worked quickly and effectively to put power into his own hands and reconstruct the wretched condition in which he found the New Netherlands. Abuses abounded in the first few years of his administration as he took away privileges from Dutch citizens, repaired and built buildings, planted orchards, created a police force, and ironically fostered morality and religion. 2 Kieft’s reforms did not stop with the Dutch settlers and his gaze was quickly turned to the Indian inhabitants that shared the land and worked to provide the Dutch with furs. 1 White, Mathew. "Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Primary Megadeaths of the Twentieth Century." Necrometrics. http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm (accessed March 2, 2013). 2 "William Kieft." Son of the South. http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revolutionary-war/explorers/william-kieft.htm (accessed March 2, 2013).(Para 1) RANCH 3 Under Kieft’s governing hand, acquisition of land soon became extremely important to the Dutch inhabitants of New Netherlands, whose primary purpose for colonization was to make money.3 Soon the desire to maintain positive relationships with the Indian nations faded as the desire to gain land was fostered by Kieft. 4 In 1639, William Kieft along with the Dutch West Indian Company decided to place a tribute on the local Indians, which included the Tappan, Hackinsack, Wickquaesgeck, and Raritan, because they were under Dutch protection. Disregarding the warning of many Dutch residents and other administrators of the colony who were familiar with the Indians, William Kieft ordered and justified this trubute. In his own words Kieft proclaims, “Whereas the Company is put to great expense both in building fortifications and in supporting soldiers and sailors, we have therefore resolved to demand from the Indians who dwell around here and who heretofore we have protected against their enemies, some contributions in the form of skins, maize and seawan [wampum], and if there be any nation which is not in a friendly way disposed to make such contribution it shall be urged to do so in the most suitable manner.”5 Not surprisingly, the Indians were enraged toward the harsh punishment that was enacted when tribute was not produced. With the added pressure to present fur that was quickly disappearing and their boiling anger due to the tribute they were forced to provide, the means for William Kieft’s War was presented. The purpose of the war was to force the Indians to adhere to the Dutch tribute and the initial conflict was the theft of some hogs on a Dutch farm in Staten Island. The thieves were 3 Giersbach, Walter. "Governor Kieft's Personal War." Military History Online. http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/indianwars/articles/kieftswar.aspx (accessed January 26, 2013). (Para 3). 4 Axlerod, Alan. America's Wars. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2002. (accessed January 26, 2013).(Page 28). 5 Ojibwa. "The Governor Kieft War." Native American Netroots. http://www.nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/968/the-governor-kieft-war (accessed January 26, 2013).(Para 2). RANCH 4 Dutch, not Indian. However, Governor Kieft sent a posse to a Raritan village and several Indians were killed. In response, the Raritan Indian’s attacked the farm where the “theft” had taken place, burning down the house and killing four farm hands.6The events quickly digressed from then on. David De Vries, an eye witness of William Kieft’s actions and the largest private investor in the colony who had originally advised against creating a tribute, describes one of the preluding massacres that occurred during this war “Later visited the governor and council hall where the soldiers were ready to go hunt Indians. The next evening, in the clear winter night of 25 to 26 February, attracted an army of eighty settlers to the Indian refugees camped behind Curlers plantation. Forty were killed in their sleep.”7 (translated from Dutch), This incident, orchestrated and encouraged by William Kieft, became known as the “Slaughter of the Innocent” and occurred in February, 1643.8. Between 100 and 110 Wappingers were murdered that night which is called today the Pavonia Massacre. De Vries reportedly told Governor Kieft, who had remained in safety inside Fort Amsterdam, that he had commenced the ruin of the colony. Kieft scorned De Vries, who turned out to be correct in his accusation. The Dutch troops returned from the massacre with thirty prisoners and the heads of a number of Indians on their pikes. Kieft, “shook their bloody hands delightedly, praised them and gave them presents.”9 The soldiers used the severed heads to play kickball in the streets. Sadly, this was just one small incident in the next two decades of 6 Ojibwa, paragraph 4 7 DeVries, David. Short Historical and Journal Notes of Several Voyages, 1655. 1655. http://www.antenna.nl/~fwillems/nl/nest/deVries.html (accessed January 26, 2013).(Para 8). 8 Tucker, Spencer. The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607-1890. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO,LLC, 2011. http://books.google.com/books?id=lyNakUZmQ9IC&pg=PA826&lpg=PA826&dq=willem (Page 826). 9 Giersbach, Walter, paragraph 25 RANCH 5 fighting and wars that proceeded as anger and retaliation spewed from both the Indians and the Dutch settlers. One of the most repulsive massacres that happened during William Kieft’s war took place later in 1643. A group of Wecquaesgeek and Tappan sought refuge at Fort Amsterdam as they fled from a war party of Mahican. Unknown to them, Governor Kieft had argued for the extermination of all Indians who had refused to pay Dutch tribute in the previous months. 10 The horrors of that night were described by De Vries in his journal, “infants were torn from their mother's breasts, and hacked to pieces in the presence of the parents, and the pieces thrown into the fire and in the water, and other sucklings, being bound to small boards, were cut, stuck, and pierced, and miserably massacred in a manner to move a heart of stone."11 The death of eighty Indians resulted from that massacre and soldier who had conducted such acts of violence and horror were personally thanked and congratulated by William Kieft for their victory. After two years of fighting and retaliation Kieft was able to take control of the war with aid from English mercenaries. He punished his opponents brutally, slaughtering more than 1,600 Indians before concluding the war with a peace treaty in 1645.12 The Dutch wished to negotiate a firm and unbreakable peace with the assembled Indian leaders which included Hackinsack leader, Oratany, Tappan leader, Sesekemu, Rachgawawanck leader, Willem, Nyack leader, Mayauwetinnemin, and Wickquasgeck leader, Aepjen (also known as Eskuyas).13Regretfully, the treaty only held for a decade before the Peach Tree War began on September 15, 1655, when a young Indian girl picked a peach from a Dutch orchard and was killed for her actions. 14 10 Ojibwa, paragraph10. 11 DeVries, David 12 Tucker, Spencer, page 826 13 Ojibwa, paragraph 11. 14 Kieft's War / Peach Tree War. http://prezi.com/oarvajwypf11/kiefts-war-peach-tree-war/ (accessed January 26, 2013) RANCH 6 William Kieft played an intricate and decisive part in instigating and encouraging the massacre of the surround Indians in the New Netherlands. Had he listened to the advice from those around him and decided not to instate the tribute to begin with, the simmering anger and judgment from both parties could have easily been avoided. With Kieft’s purpose to gain money and riches in his endeavors in America he failed to take into account the human lives he in his pursuit for power. It would even seem, from his actions, that he did not consider Indians to be human at all. Although the death toll of William Kieft’s War was significantly less than that of Hitler’s “Final Solution” and genocide in World War II, it should not be overlooked. The cruelty and venomous actions that occurred because of William Kieft’s encouragement and orders are equally as heinous only on a smaller scale. His evil accomplishments mirrored those of Adolf Hitler in his utter disregard for the sanctity of the human lives that surrounded him. Both individuals are tragic examples of how men can become so blinded by power, money and a false sense of superiority that they become capable of unthinkable atrocities.