The National Museum of the American Indian in New York City is near the site of the Bowling Green massacre in 1643. Photo: Miguel Mendez
An adviser to President Donald Trump is coming under fire for questioning the lack of media attention to a non-existent terrorist attack. But it turns out Kellyanne Conway was right, sort of. There was a massacre at Bowling Green, in present-day New York City, in 1964. Steven Newcomb (Shawnee / Lenape) of the Indigenous Law Institute has more:
In an interview with Chris Matthews, host of the MSNBC show “Hardball,” Kellyanne Conway, an advisor to President Donald J. Trump, mentioned “two Iraqis [who],” she said, “came here to this country, were radicalized and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.” “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered,” she said. As she later found out to her chagrin, “most people don’t know that” because no such massacre was carried out by two Iraqi men. She later acknowledged her error and corrected herself on Twitter. Ironically, Ms. Conway’s phrase “Bowling Green massacre” provides an opportunity to mention a massacre of our Lenape people in the Bowling Green district of lower Manhattan Island by the Dutch colonizers during Kieft’s war (1643-45). During that period, the Dutch murdered hundreds of our Lenape people. One notable genocidal incident occurred in lower Manhattan, near where the American Indian Museum is today, and near the site where Fort Amsterdam once stood. The episode was written about by a Dutchman named David Pietersz de Vries. In the early 1640s, Dutch Governor William Kieft tried to impose a tax on our Lenape ancestors. They were refusing to pay foreigners for the ‘privilege’ of living in their territory. According to de Vries, Governor Kieft judged the “relatively nonbeligerant Hackensack Indians at Pavonia to be in a weakened position.” Kieft vowed to force them into submission.Read More on the Story:
Steven Newcomb: Our Lenape Ancestors Were Slaughtered At Bowling Green Massacre (Indian Country Today 2/6) Also Today:
The Real Bowling Green Massacre (Indian Country Today 2/4)
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