When the Pennsylvania militia managed to kill ninety-six innocent Indians, only two boys were lucky to survive. But, like any village, the Indians at Gnadenhutten had family and friends that lived in other communities and this post is about how the massacre affected those other survivors.
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Clinton A. Weslager (1909-1994) wrote several books about the Delaware Indians. In this photo he is [obviously] thinking about something very different from the Gnadenhutten Massacre.[/caption]In addition to the normal emotional process of mourning that friends and family go through, the Gnadenhutten Massacre had a strong effect on the thinking or the mindset of Delaware Indians from other villages. On page 35 of my book, Proud and Determined, I quote historian Clinton A. Weslager who wrote
The belief was widely held that the Moravian missionaries at Gnadenhutten made the Indians "tame" in order to soften them for destruction and, after taming them, summoned the American soldiers to kill them.
Roughly twenty years later, this belief or mindset was still evident when the Moravians tried to get another mission going.
Weslager continues:
When the Moravian mission was established on [Indiana's] White River, news went from one Delaware village to another that these missionaries were also under orders from the United States government to tame the Delawares and that those foolish enough to accept Christianity would soon be "knocked in the head."
For that (and other reasons) it really shouldn't surprise us that the Moravians' White River mission never succeeded.
Source: Weslager, Clinton A. The Delaware Indians: A History, New Brunswick , New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 1972, page 342.
Read more about Clinton Weslager and his books at John P. Reid's Collecting Delaware Books site.
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