by Laura J. Nelson @laura_nelson
”It’s important to put the Pulse & other mass shootings in historical context not to minimize the terror wreaked by a disturbed and bigoted individual’s easy access to military-grade weapons, but to recognize that gun culture in the U.S. has gone hand in hand with violent hatred for a long time,” USC law professor Ariela Gross wrote @arielagross
In the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century, people in positions of power, such as cavalry members and religious groups, often murdered the so-called have-nots, Duwe said. “In a lot of those cases, we seldom see anyone who was ever charged,” he said.
A broader definition of “mass shooting” includes many of those incidents. Among them:
- Sand Creek Massacre: In 1864, about 675 soldiers rode toward a tribal campsite in eastern Colorado and opened fire, killing more than 165 Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe members. More than half the dead were women and children, according to the National Park Service. Black Kettle, a Cheyenne chief, is said to have waved a white flag as the troops approached. He survived the massacre and was killed four years later by Gen. George Armstrong Custer.
- https://goo.gl/ucu6Ma
- Clear Lake Massacre: In 1850, a U.S. cavalry unit descended on a tribe of Pomo Indians living on an island in Lake County, Calif., and killed at least 60 men, women and children. The army had sought revenge for the death of two white settlers who had “long enslaved, brutalized and starved indigenous people in the area,” according to a plaque placed at the site by the California Department of Parks and Recreation.https://goo.gl/kHXlQA
- Wounded Knee Massacre: In 1890, U.S. Army troops near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota opened fire on unarmed Lakota Chief Big Foot and a band of his tribe. More than 250+ men, women and children,women,men were killed.soldiers used the Hotchkiss guns against the tipi camp full of women and children. It is believed that many of the soldiers were victims of friendly fire from their own Hotchkiss guns.
- https://goo.gl/5XUPhi
Other mass shootings involved altercations between pioneer settlers and communities already established in the West, including the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857. A wagon train headed to California was attacked by Mormons as it passed through southwest Utah. About 120 people were killed.
Some notable racial and class-based clashes in the late 19th and early 20th century could also be considered mass shootings:
- Rock Springs massacre: In Sept 1885, a group of white men and women fatally beat and shot at least On this day in 1885, 150 white miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, brutally attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15 others, and driving several hundred more out of town.in southwestern Wyoming. https://goo.gl/bG3vbv
- Tulsa race riots: "Black Wall Street" of America.Greenwood" section of the city A white mob attacked black residents in Tulsa, Okla., in 1921 and burned down the Greenwood neighborhood, which was then the wealthiest black business district in the United States. Modern estimates place the death toll at 50 to 300 people, many of them shot.https://goo.gl/ivSZs1
- Elaine massacre: Black men in Elaine, a small town in eastern Arkansas, met in the fall of 1919 to discuss how to collect more money for their cotton crops. During the meeting, a white man who was deputized was shot. In the riot that followed, as many as 200 black people were killed by shot or hung https://goo.gl/XXimAZ
Comments