Virginia Tech Not Largest Mass Killing In U.S. History Issues Beyond Palo Alto, posted by red fox, a resident of another community, on Apr 29, 2007 at 9:05 am
Not be a long shot, in case you'd forgotten,
there are many examples that far exceed this affair,
such as the Sand Creek Massacre, which occurred over 142 yrs.
ago, when a band of state militia (Colorado) volunteers massacred 150
sleeping Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in a misdirected act
of vengeance, in which the militia sought revenge for the killing of several
settlers by Indians, and they proceeded to kill nearly everyone in the village, most
of whom were women and children. The attack was recognized almost immediately
as criminal, and congress condemned it, and Lincoln fired the territorial governor.
The victims were not hostile, but were peaceful, and this was known by the militia's
Posted by John, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, on Apr 29, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Sand Creek was, indeed, a slaughter. However, there was context (unlike Virginia Tech), namely revenge for previous killings of Whites. It was guerilla warfare, and the Indians had the moral high ground, IMO. Nevertheless, wars are generally won by those with the most tenacious and powerful armies (Whites, in this case). It was soldiers vs. warriors, and the soldiers won.
Here is a little piece on the Indian/White conflicts, extracted from Wikipedia:
"Determining how many people died in these massacres overall is difficult. In the book The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee, amateur historian William M. Osborn sought to tally every recorded atrocity in the area that would eventually become the continental United States, from first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890), and determined that 9,156 people died from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans, and 7,193 people died from atrocities perpetrated by whites. Osborn defines an atrocity as the murder, torture, or mutilation of civilians, the wounded and prisoners. Different definitions would obviously produce different totals. For example, Osborn does not count estimated 4,000 Indian deaths on the Trail of Tears (because these were allegedly unintentional), but he does count several episodes of post-mortem mutilation, even of combatants killed in open battle. Osborn's exact total of 16,349 killed on both sides can therefore be disputed."
Posted by Rick, a resident of the Greater Miranda neighborhood, on Apr 29, 2007 at 11:16 pm
The tragedy last week was the largest mass shooting by a single person and was never categorized as the largest "mass killing." I don't think there has been any dispute about that. These other instances were carried out by other means or were carried out by more than one person.
Posted by A Thought, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on May 1, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I think we should form a committee to rank, catagorize, and document the various slaughters of the innocent that have taken place on American soil - by number murdered, how many gunmen, whose fault ....
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