Killed by Natives

See: List of Persons Killed by Natives

As Europeans came to the North American continent, they encountered a rather diverse population of natives. Some of the natives were quite friendly and eager to seek alliances to fend off more violent tribes from the West. Prior to the first European settlers, and also after their landing in the New World, climate conditions were forcing High Plains warrior Indians to migrate East. Many Indians of various tribes, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, were slaughtered during the Eastward incursion. And so the Indians in the easternmost lands of North America thought it wise to form alliances with the White Men who had suddenly appeared, and who had brought guns and horses.

By the 1600s, the Spanish were already successful in conquering and subjugating South America and Central America. The French were also successful in conquering parts of the North American Midwest when they arrived from the Gulf of Mexico. In the 1600s, the English were making their move by colonizing the East Coast of North America. The Spanish, French, and English, however, were competing with each other, just as the various tribes of North America had been competing with each other. Who knows how many centuries the Indians have been fighting amongst themselves before the Europeans came? We know the European countries of Spain, France, and England had already been fighting for a couple hundred years. The wild card in these various opponents came when the English and Germanic Colonials rebelled against England, and began their own, independent nation.

The long list of wars, battles, treaties, raids, and broken treaties overshaddowed the day-to-day interactions betwen the various cultures. While we acknowledge that attrocities occurred amongst all parties for various reasons, this web page focuses on those people who were killed in day-to-day activities by hostile natives. The purpose of this focus is to give context for the genealogist who seeks to understand how the Settlers and Pioneers were were affected by hostile Natives.

There were many European Indian fighters from the 1600s to the 1800s. Ludwig Maintzger and his sons and grandsons were among them. These men were successful in their enterprise, and as always occurs in wars, they instilled fear and hatred into their foes. The brave ones among the Natives felt justified in retaliation due to their loss of land, hunting grounds, cultural losses, and also by the deaths of their friends and family. The Settlers and Pioneers among the Europeans felt that natives were violent savages for not understanding or appreciating European culture. The Indians thought White Men were stupid for thinking they can own land, and thus traded land for immediate provisions such as liquors, horses, guns, and food commodities. The Indians underestimated the power of surveyors, land deeds, and an organized government with its court systems. By the time they realized their mistake, the Europeans had developed the land, harvested the natural resources, and increased their numbers.

Every time the White Men advanced, there were those Indians whose anger and jealousy drove them to kill. On this page, we memorialize not the warriors of either side, but the citizens whose lives were taken by Natives while  pursuing their dreams of independent living, and raising a family.

The list of names below link to corresponding profiles at the Wikitree genealogy website. The Wikitree profiles may provide more details about the deaths, as well as references.