Archaeologists find Indian massacre site (Maya uprising against Spanish)

[Ediacara]

Monday, September 8, 2003 · Last updated 7:38 a.m. PT

Archaeologists find Indian massacre site

By MARK STEVENSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BACALAR, Mexico -- Mexican archaeologists have unearthed what may be the resting place of dozens - and perhaps hundreds - of victims, including the tiny vertebrae and clavicles of children massacred during North America's last large-scale Indian war.

The excavations in this Caribbean coast town have yielded a cautionary tale about the destructive power of rural conflict here. The dig at Bacalar's old San Joaquin Church illustrates how, when Mexico allows land and ethnic conflicts to simmer, they eventually explode, often with astonishing violence.

Originally built in the 1600s to withstand attacks by English pirates, Bacalar, 200 miles south of Cancun, finally succumbed to a different threat: Mayan Indians driven to rebellion by 300 years of oppression, first by the Spanish conquistadors and later by mixed-race Mexicans.

In what was known as the Caste War, the Mayas grew tired of suffering land expropriations and an oppressive tax system and rose up in arms in 1848 with the aim of expelling non-Indians from their lands.

More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

[gratuitous]

1. Mass graves in Mexico?!

Attack!

[Ediacara]

3. don't give them any ideas.....

[SpiralHawk]

2. The war against the Maya continues today in Chiapas and Guatemala

Just go to the google news engine -- and search for stories involving those places, the Maya and atrocities. The war against Native peoples -- earth-based peoples -- continues. But this, too, will pass.

Kaycha tuowa Heyta Ho - SH

[MnFats]

5. how does the last line translate to english?

...assuming it in fact translates....
the last phrase sounds almost like 'hoka hey,' which I could pretty much understand.

[diamond14]

4. Last North American massacre??? What about Sand Creek, CO ?

1848 ?? U.S. Calvary attacked women/children/old people in 1864...16 years later...many people do not want to understand that OUR soldiers brutally masscred innocents and mutilated their bodies...."massacred during North America's last large-scale Indian war"...Seattle Post should tell the truth !!! 16 years later, OUR calvary was massacering American Indians....tell the truth...


-snip-

"At dawn on November 29, 1864, approximately 700 U.S. volunteer soldiers commanded by Colonel John M. Chivington attacked a village of about 500 Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians along Sand Creek - also known as Big Sandy Creek - in southeastern Colorado Territory. Using small arms and howitzer fire, the troops drove the people out of their camp. While many managed to escape the initial onslaught, others, particularly noncombatant women, children, and the elderly fled into and up the bottom of the dry streambed. The soldiers followed, shooting at them as they struggled through the sandy earth. At a point several hundred yards above the village, the people frantically excavated pits and trenches along either side of the streambed to protect them. Some attempted to fight back with whatever weapons they had managed to retrieve from the camp, and at several places along Sand Creek the soldiers shot the people from opposite banks and presently brought forward the howitzers to blast them from their scant defenses. Over the course of seven hours the troops succeeded in killing at least 150 Cheyennes and Arapahos composed mostly of the old, the young, and the weak. During the afternoon and following day, the soldiers wandered over the field committing atrocities on the dead before departing the scene on December 1st to resume campaigning."

http://www.sandcreek.org/Massacre/massacreindex.htm

-snips-

The people gathered under the American flag fluttering above Black Kettle’s tipi, thinking this would afford them protection. Quickly, Black Kettle raised a white surrender flag on the same pole. But the soldiers ignored it and began shooting. They unloaded everything they had into the unfortunate villagers – rifle, pistol and cannon fire. The Indians ran in horror. But there was little place to hide. The soldiers herded the women and children into groups and murdered them in cold blood. They then performed outrageous depravities to their corpses. In one instance a six year old girl clutching a white flag was brought down in a hail of bullets – dead before she hit the ground. Babies brains were dashed out against trees. Bodies were scalped and ripped open with knives. Tobacco pouches were made out of men’s private parts.

The 3rd Colorado rode back to Denver with over 100 dripping scalps, which were proudly displayed in a local theatre – the bloody emblems of the most disgraceful attack ever undertaken by the United States Government.


http://ny.essortment.com/sandcreekmassa_rfcp.htm

[happyslug]

6. The Caste War lasted until the 1910s with killings till that time.

See for more details:

http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/mexico/yucatan/tales/0303yucatan.html