Stolen Relations

Dec. 12.—To relieve our horses, which are constantly giving out from exhaustion, the grass being insufficient for their sustenance while performing labor, the entire battalion, officers and men, were ordered to march on foot, turning their horses, with the saddles and bridles upon them, into the general caballada to be driven along by the horse-guard. The day has been drizzly, cold and disagreeable. The country has a barren and naked appearance, but this, I believe, is attributable to the extreme drought that has prevailed in this region for one or two years past. We encamped near the rancho of a friendly Californian,—the man who was taken prisoner the other day and set at large. An Indian, said to be the servant of Tortoria Pico, was captured here by the advance party. A letter was found upon him, but its contents I never learned. This being the first foot-march, there were, of course, many galled and blistered feet in the battalion.

(6/6) Source: What I Saw in California: Being the Journal of a Tour by the Emigrant Route and South Pass of the Rocky Mountains…in the Years 1846-1847, page 372-373. #indigenoushistory #indigenous #history #historicalresearch #california #californiahistory #servant #captive #freedom #unfreedom

(5/6) This connects to longer trends of colonists viewing Indigenous people as either useful or not, friendly or enemies with little regard to the rights and needs of Native communities and individuals.

(4/6) Bryant makes no note of why either man was captured, nor why they were respectively killed or freed. However, the second man was described as “friendly” due to having provided a place for the battalion to camp, demonstrating that he was even free, judged by what he could provide to his captors

(3/6) He was executed the day after, as witnessed by the people on a neighboring Indigenous rancheria, in what was likely an attempted display of intimidation. The other man was taken prisoner, freed. However, once free, he was still not free of his captors, who chose to camp at his rancho overnight

(2/6) One of these men was originally a servant to a man named Tortorio Pico, and then within the span of a few days, he was captured by an advance party of a California battalion during the Mexican American War.

(1/6) Yesterday marks 179 years since the capture of two Indigenous men from California was mentioned in Edwin Bryant’s narrative of his voyage through California. These two unnamed men were treated entirely differently due to the relative amount that they were perceived to be helping their captors.

We are informed that at a Special Superiour Court held at Saybrook in the Colony of Connecticut, on the third Tuesday of November past, Kate an Indian Woman, lately a Servant to the Reverend Mr. Wm. Worthington of said Saybrook, was Indicted by the Grand Jury for murdering her Child, and was found Guilty, and received Sentence of Death accordingly; the Time of her Execution is not yet fixed, but 'tis tho't it will not be till toward Spring.

(5/5)Source: New England Weekly Journal, December 6, 1737. Our Fellow-Creatures & our Fellow-Christians: Race and Religion in Eighteenth-Century, by Katherine Grandjean. #indigenoushistory #indigenous #history #colonialhistory #historicalresearch #connecticut #connecticuthistory #newspaper #servant

(4/5) Was the pregnancy the result of a violation done to her? Was this an act of resistance or protection for the child, as has been the case in other rare instances? Was she guilty at all?

(3/5) However, at no point in this piece is she allowed to speak for herself. As is often the case with archival records, we are left with more questions than answers and the nature of the source robs its readers of any true context to the event.

(2/5) Katherine was accused of murdering her infant child during the winter of 1736-1637. After a long investigation and a trial, which included a “confession,” Katherine was found guilty on November 20 and sentenced to death, which was carried out on May 3, 1738.

(1/5) Yesterday marks 288 years since the New England Weekly Journal published a story relating to a Pequot servant woman named Katherine Garret in Saybrook, Connecticut. Her legal master was a Reverend named William Worthington, but her unfreedom is not the focus of the news story.

(4/4) The narrative of the friendship between the Wampanoag and pilgrims has overshadowed the erasure of Native land, culture, and people that was done over the next 400 years. #thanksgiving #indigenous #indigenoushistory

(3/4) Wampanoag people did not choose to support the settlers out of friendship, but to establish diplomacy with European nations following decades of previous contact. Indigenous people were not invited to the first Thanksgiving at all, but they did show up after Pilgrims began firing their guns.

(2/4) The modern myth of the first Thanksgiving around the “friendship” between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims of Plymouth is an act of rewriting history by Americans, starting in the 19th century, who wanted to create a strong, godly founding story.

(1/4) Today, in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Conceptualized broadly as a day of gratitude, it holds different meanings for Indigenous communities across the country. For many Native people, it represents a Day of Mourning and recognition of past harms.

The hidden history of Indigenous slavery in New England and beyond It's a surprising and overlooked story, a blind spot in the narrative of early America: the hidden history of Indigenous slavery. As colonial powers took over Native land, white settlers were enslavin...

The hidden history of Indigenous slavery in New England and beyond — @linford.bsky.social appeared on this segment from @ctpublic.bsky.social to discuss the history of slavery in New England and his collaboration with tribal communities in the Northeast on @stolenrelations.bsky.social.

(4/4) #indigenoushistory #indigenous #history #colonialhistory #historicalresearch #rhodeisland #rhodeislandhistory #letter #enslavement #narragansett #mohegan

To John Winthrop, 20 November 1637 Sir I rest thanckfully Satisfied in Your propounding of my Motion to the Court, and the Answere. (The Earth is Jehovahs, and the Plenitude of it.) I am not a litle glad that the Lot is fallen upon a Branch of that Roote, in whose good (present and aeternall both of Roote and Branches) I rejoice. For his sake I wish it Ground and Grasse, and Trees, yet what use so ever he please to make of it I desire he would not spare to make use of me in any Service toward the Natives on it or about it. Miantunnomu in his Relations of passages in the Bay with you, thanckfull acknowledges to my Selfe and others your loving Cariage to him and promiseth to send forth word to all Natives to cease from Prudence Trees etc. Since Your letter I travelled up to Nayantaquit by Land where I heard Reprive was. There the Sachim (to whome he adheres Wepiteammock) and the people related that he was gone to his wife to Monhiggin: allso that he Wepiteammock had sent to Onkas advising and urging the Retune but he could not prevaile, and that if Reprive come within his Reach he will send him (though alone without his wife) however.

(3/4) Reprive went on to be accused of spying for Winthrop and was returned to him by the Narragansett people. For self-emancipated people like Reprive, similar webs of power often resulted in their re-enslavement. Source: The Correspondence of Roger Williams Vol I, p. 137.

(2/4) When he did not return, Williams went to Niantic, RI, to investigate his absence and he learned that Reprive had gone to his wife, Joane, in Mohegan, CT. The Mohegan sachem, Uncas, stated that if Reprive was found within his land, he would be returned to Winthrop.

(1/4) Three days ago, 388 years ago today, Roger Williams wrote a letter to John Winthrop describing an ongoing search for a man named Reprive who was enslaved by Winthrop. Williams had written a month previously stating that Reprive had stayed with nearby friends for two nights.

(5/5) Please wear red today and this week in recognition of Red Shawl Day and seek out Indigenous perspectives today and always. #redshawlday #redshawlday2025 #indigenous #native #mmiw #mmiwg #mmip #NoMoreStolenSisters #indigenousactivism

(4/5) When they failed because of the intervention of the child’s mother and a young boy, they murdered the boy and burned down the rancheria. When the child and mother escaped and reported the violence with evidence, they were ignored and the men never experienced prosecution.

INDIAN KILLED.—Near North Fork of Cottonwood, week before last, a most cowardly and barbarous murder was committed. It seems that two white barbarians went to an Indian rancheria in that neighborhood, for the purpose of getting possession of an Indian girl about ten years old. This attempt at forcible possession was resisted by the mother of the child, assisted by a crippled Indian boy, the only one in the rancheria. The resistance of this prior cripple so exasperated the villains that one of them seized him by the top of the head, while with his knife he first cut his throat and then stabbed him to the knife hilt, and to wreak his vengeance fully, turned the knife in the wound several times, then withdrawing it, again stabbed his victim, turning the knife as before, repeating the act until life was extinct. While this butchery was going on the girl and her mother made their escape. In a few days after the fiends burnt the rancheria. There is nothing but the dead body and Indian testimony to prove the above, and though it is convincing, it is not enough, under the law, to punish the miscreants.—White men who live with Indians habitually, should do so subject to Indian testimony; and we think a law to that effect would be wise and proper.

(3/5) The Stolen Relations archive contains stories that illustrate this longer history, like when, 160 years ago, a ten year old Native girl living on a North Fork, CA, rancheria faced kidnapping by two white men.

(2/5) This is not an exclusively modern problem. Indigenous women have been the target of violence at the hands of the state and individuals since first contact. The violence experienced by Native women is a continuation of structural limitations placed on Native nations’ to seek justice.

(1/5) Today we observe Red Shawl Day. This is a day of recognition for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Today, in the United States, Indigenous women face violence at more than ten times the national average, and these instances of violence are often unprosecuted.

The hidden history of Indigenous slavery in New England and beyond It's a surprising and overlooked story, a blind spot in the narrative of early America: the hidden history of Indigenous slavery. As colonial powers took over Native land, white settlers were enslavin...

Grateful for the good work of @ctpublic.bsky.social in airing this segment, which features the voices of regional tribal members and also mentions the @stolenrelations.bsky.social project. www.ctpublic.org/2025-11-14/i...

Lancaster, October 31, 1753. THis day was committed to the goal of this county, on suspicion of being a runaway servant, Indian Thomas, who says he’s a free man, and served his time with Samuel Lippincut, near Mount-holly ironworks, in the Jerseys. And on the day following Abigail Allen, who says she’s a freewoman, and served her time with John Rowls, in Chester. These are to desire their masters to come or send for them, otherwise they will be sold to pay their cost, by JOHN CLARK, Goal-keeper. The. 6 W.

(4/4) Source: America's Historical Newspapers. Pennsylvania Gazette, November 15, 1753. #indigenoushistory #indigenous #history #colonialhistory #historicalresearch #Pennsylvania #Pennsylvaniahistory #newspaper #enslavement #indenture

(3/4) If no master were to come retrieve them, Clark stated that they would be sold. This likely occurred; both stated that they were not currently in servitude and the ad was published only once.

(2/4) Along with him, Abigail Allen, a woman who was formerly indentured to John Rowls in Chester, the two were incarcerated by John Clark allegedly because he believed them to have fled their enslavers. Realistically, however, it is likely that they were captured to be sold for profit.

(1/4) Tomorrow, 272 years ago, an ad was published in the Pennsylvania Gazette bringing attention to the capture and imprisonment of two free people in jail. The first, an Indigenous man named Thomas, had previously been indentured to Samuel Lippincut in the Jerseys.