Deer Island Indian concentration camp victims remembered

[The Straight Story]

Deer Island Indian concentration camp victims remembered

DEER ISLAND, Mass. - Standing on top of a hill on Deer Island where hundreds of Indians died of starvation and exposure more than 300 years ago, John Sam Sapiel recollected their suffering.

''I prayed in for all of them,'' Sapiel, Penobscot, said on May 24, following a commemoration ceremony to honor the Deer Island Indian concentration camp victims, who died on that desolate strip of land off Boston Harbor during the brutal winter of 1675 - '76.

May 24 marked the anniversary of the 1677 repeal of the law that established the Massachusetts concentration camp for Indians.

The law was signed into effect by the Massachusetts Council on Oct. 13, 1675, five months after the beginning of King Philip's War against the English settlers. The war was a devastating conflict that pitted tribes against each other, killed thousands of American Indians, and cleared the way for white settlement.

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?feature=yes&id=1096410998

[riverwalker]

1. genocide

there is no other word for it.
I am stopping at Wounded Knee this summer while on a road trip, maybe leave some flowers and many tears.