If you know anything about important events in the history of Native Americans and the United States, chances are you’re familiar with the Battle of the Little Big Horn – also known as Battle of the Greasy Grass – and the defeat of George Custer (born in Ohio in 1839) and his 7th Cavalry. It is widely remembered and celebrated across Indian Country and among Urban Native communities as a standard of Indigenous unity and resistance against what today is commonly assumed to be the unstoppable tide of United States settler colonialism. It is a day worth commemorating, but there is another that most people Native and non-Native alike have no memory of. And it happened in the land called Ohio today.

Ohio has always held a ‘special’ place in the hearts, minds, and pockets of the settler colonies. Land speculation over some 200,000 acres of land in the area helped to make people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson incredible amounts of wealth, until it was banned by the Crown in 1763, and King George was suddenly viewed by many would-be settlers and land speculators as a tyrant. This Proclamation was one of the foundations of resentment that led to the American War of Independence. After the end of the war, the United States teetered on the brink of economic collapse. Their solution? Sell off Indigenous land that they acquired in the Treaty of Paris (that no Native leader was even present during the negotiations or signing). And thus, the Ohio Territory was re-opened to a flood of violent settlement and the displacement of Native communities.

By 1785, the anticolonial resistance of a multiethnic confederation of Native American tribes, called the Northwestern Confederacy or sometimes the Miami Confederacy, brought the might of the US military to Ohio Country. In October 1790, The Commanding General of the United States, Josiah Harmar, marched across Ohio. His army burned towns and any cropland they encountered to try and subdue to confederation. After a series of battles at the end of the month, Harmar’s army was turned back and Harmar lost his command as the head of the US military. The man who took his position was none other than the governor of the so-called Northwest Territory, and the man who passed the Northwest Ordinance during his term as the President of the Continental Congress: Arthur St Clair.

In 1791, Congress doubled the size of the US military and after enlisting hundreds of Kentucky militiamen in support, General St Clair set out to remedy Harmar’s failure. Following George Washington’s command, St Clair proceeded on his own campaign of terror and destruction. While raids began in the spring, it wasn’t until October that the full strength of the US military set out from Ft Washington (Cincinnati today) to march on the capital of the Miami Nation, Kekionga. The army struck northwards and came to camp at the headwaters of the Wabash River. On the morning of 4 November, a confederation force of Miami, Shawnee, Lenape, Odawa, Potawatomi, Seneca, Ojibwe, Cherokee, and Wyandot launched a multi-pronged attack on the camp. Within three hours, the US military was utterly routed. St Clair’s force suffered a casualty rate of 97% (around 70% died in the battle and rout). Fully one quarter of the United State military was destroyed on the banks of the Wabash in Ohio. It is still the single worst loss the US has ever suffered; and it happened at the hands of and Indigenous confederation, united in resistance.

The architects of St Clair’s Defeat were the same who crushed Harmar the year previous. Notable leaders were Little Turtle (Miami), Blue Jacket (Shawnee), Buckongahelas and Captain Pipe (Lenape), Egushawa (Odawa), Tarhi (Wyandot), and Simon Girty a settler who had been adopted by the Lenape. As if Harmar’s Defeat wasn’t shocking enough, The Battle of the Wabash, called St Clair’s Defeat, sent a wave of existential dread throughout the new settler state. Native American resistance repeatedly thwarted the young republic; the unity of the confederation meant US defeat and humiliation. And so, the US took another approach.

Agents of the United States began to make their way into the Great Lakes. There they sought to negotiate with individual tribes and leaders. They sought to drive wedges between men and nations, particularly between Little Turtle and Blue Jacket. In one settlement agents would speak of the success of the ‘Miami Confederacy’, and in another they would speak about the great victories won by Blue Jacket. US agents sewed disunity and leaned into the egos of men. By the time the US military recovered its losses, they encountered a much more fractured confederacy, which ultimately dissolved in 1794 following the British betrayal of the confederation that ended in US victory at Fallen Timbers (near modern Toledo, Ohio).

Today we remember the Battle of the Wabash and St Clair’s Defeat. We celebrate the brave and ingenious resistance that was staged by a united front of Indigenous Peoples. Not only did multiple Native Nations come together in their resistance to settler expansion, but Black freedomseekers and adopted settlers joined in arms against colonial aggression. We honour their collective struggle, in defense of their homes, their rights, and their ways of being. So, too, the aftermath of this victory calls us to remember to abandon our egos and to refuse those actors who seek the opportunity to break us apart. These are lessons for all of us who work for a better future to hold in our hearts and minds. The Battle of the Wabash should be celebrated. It should be lifted up and honoured as an example for Indigenous People and those who stand for Indigenous Rights, reminding us that if we are united in cause and resist division, then nothing can defeat us.

Remember the Wabash

It’s always been a little on the nose to have Native American Heritage Month be the same one with the holiday that focuses on a holiday that Indigenous people have a particularly troubling history with: Thanksgiving. It’s the one month a year when non-Natives tend to remember we exist, and when all the kind settler institutions and organizations (governmental, historic, cultural, and beyond) suddenly want to hear our voices. And every year, Native orgs are made to spend some of this time to provide an obligatory statement on the history and heritage of Thanksgiving. So here is ours:

The Myth

If you have been not paying attention for the last 40 or so years, you might be surprised to hear that the story of the ‘First Thanksgiving’ is not really a true, or particularly wholesome one.

The myth of Thanksgiving takes place in the years 1620 and 1621, ending in a dinner of peace and friendship between the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony (modern Massachusetts) and Native Americans. While it is often left unsaid which Native People participated in this feast, it was the Wampanoag, who still exist within and outside of Massachusetts today. If you grew up in the United States, you’re probably familiar with the main parts of the story:

Pilgrims arrive to escape religious persecution
Pilgrims nearly starve
Pilgrims are helped by Native Americans
Pilgrims and Native Americans celebrate
Native Americans kindly vanish and leave the land to the Pilgrims

The ‘Pilgrims’

Well, there are a few things to point out in this story. While it’s true the so-called Pilgrims left England because of their religion, it’s not exactly fair to cast them as noble freedom-seeking folk; they were Puritans. The Puritans were a Christian religious sect that sought to purify society. By this they meant the installation of a theocratic government that followed a strict interpretation of and adherence to specific Biblical doctrine. They were religious extremists, who at points in time tried to seize power in Europe (notably England). The so-called Pilgrims in the Thanksgiving myth were such fanatics, who left for the colonial company landgrants along the Atlantic coast because those mean people of England didn’t want to be ruled over by their strict sense of Biblical law.

The story of starvation is largely true, but in that is hidden a much darker reality. When the Puritans arrived to the land today called Massachusetts it was a scene of horror. Just prior to their arrival, the region was devastated by infectious disease brought by European sailors. Entire communities were left destroyed or abandoned. Food gardens, farms, towns, and burials were all left behind. This was viewed as Divine Providence by the Puritans who then came to occupy the rich territory. Much of the food available to the Pilgrims (in the many forest gardens in the landscape) was ignored and the settlers tried growing their staples of rye, barley, and wheat. And they nearly starved as a result. Their crops failed, being unsuitable to the region, and the colony teetered on the brink of destruction. So, instead of utilizing local food sources, the Pilgrims descended upon the graves of the recently dead plague victims. It is left unsaid whether the Puritans committed cannibalism, as the English had done at Jamestown, but it is known that the graves were robbed of food and sacred items.

Saving the Settlers

While these desecrations may have served as a short-term solution, the fact is that European crops were destined to fail in this part of the world. It was only with the intervention of a man called Tisquantum (popularly called by the diminutive Squanto) that the colony survived. Tisquantum, was said to be the last survivor of the Patuxet People: the very same people who were decimated by plague and had their graves looted. Aware of the actions and plight of the Puritans, Tisquantum spoke with them and ultimately showed them how their agricultural system was destined to fail. He then showed them how to plant the very food that had grown in the abandoned fields of his People. Native foodways saved the settlers. Native foodways shown to them by a man who had survived incredible hardship at the hands of the English. You see, there was a reason why Tisquantum could speak English that the Thanksgiving myth doesn’t really focus on. Tisquantum had been the victim of English slavers six years earlier. This was a common practice among the English and Spanish along the Atlantic Coast of North America, It was such a routine occurrence that Native People refused to set foot on European ships when conducting trade or diplomacy, lest they be spirited away. And after being sold off in Europe, he eventually found liberation and his way back home, only to find that his People had been destroyed by plague brought by those same English slavers.

After Tisquantum’s support and working as a diplomatic liaison between the Puritans and the local Indigenous Wampanoag leadership, the Pilgrims came into closer community and alliance with the leader Massasoit. And it is their peaceable communal feast that is celebrated in the ‘First Thanksgiving’ (nevermind that ‘thanksgivings’ were both common among both Protestant and Indigenous communities) and the friendship between Indigenous Peoples and settlers. However, the acts of peace and friendship that are central to the Thanksgiving story are a work of fantasy.

From ‘Friendship’ to Bloodbaths

Despite the assistance of Indigenous communities to help settlers in need, this did not afford them much esteem among the fanatical Pilgrims. The relationship between Puritan and Wampanoag was not considered equal, with Native Americans being cast as demons of the forest in need of being saved. To this, the Puritans habitually tried to enforce colonial laws on them as well as to curb their sovereign rights to conduct diplomacy with other Nations as they pleased. This view of divine right to overlordship led to brutal conflict. Within a generation of Massasoit’s death, any semblance of friendship had vanished. Massasoit’s son, Wamsutta, came to leadership following his death. In the 1660’s, Wamsutta conducted diplomatic negotiations with the Narragansett People. The Puritans did not believe that Wamsutta should be allowed to conduct diplomacy with anyone but them. As a result, he was abducted and brought to Plymouth to explain himself in 1662. He died on his journey back home. While the Puritans claimed he caught a fever, it was believed that either disease or poison were used to kill him. What followed was called King Philip’s War (after the English name of Wamsutta’s brother, Metacomet). This conflict engulfed the Atlantic coast colonies for three years. At its end, this war was the bloodiest (per capita) conflict in the territory that is currently the United States and Canada. Many among the Wampanoag were rounded up and enslaved at the war’s conclusion.

The story of Thanksgiving is an inherently colonial one. It is a story that tells us each year that Indigenous People welcomed and supported settlers to flourish on this continent. And then those kind Native Americans vanished into pages of history after consecrating the creation of a settler state that would become the United States of America. It ignores the blood and suffering brought by these very settlers and their contemporaries, and the disproportionate violence they visited on Indigenous People to seize land, resources, and the right to tell the history of that land.

And every year around this time, Indigenous People are made to remember this colonial myth and take a stance on it. Does celebrating the holiday mean we consent to the colonial narrative? Does publicly denouncing it show we are appropriately resisting colonization? Well, one thing is certainly true: the settlers who first poured this myth into the ears of children did not imagine that Indigenous People would even be alive to have any feelings on Thanksgiving. The fact that we still exist to come together with our families for a feast is resisting colonization.

Celebrate that.

The Committee of 500 Years of Dignity & Resistance commemorates the 80th anniversary of the violent birth of the Atomic Age, in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We mourn and condemn the loss of innocent, civilian, and noncombatant lives by imperialist settler-states. We also grieve for our global relatives, human and otherwise, for the destruction that the Atomic Age has brought and its creation of a more dangerous world.

The victims of nuclear weapons and their production, unfortunately, extend far beyond the countless sorrows of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, communities continue to suffer from the effects of nuclear testing (including government experiments conducted on individuals) and extractivism. In the land currently called the United States, Indigenous People are disproportionately impacted by these. Communities in the Southwest have been subjected to dangerous working conditions in uranium mines, individuals have been forcibly experimented on, and have had their lands and water contaminated by radioactive materials. These are among the many lesser known casualties of uranium.

On 9 August, 2025, the Committee of 500 Years held a documentary screening and group discussion to raise awareness of these casualties, Cleveland’s role in the creation of the atomic bomb, and Indigenous resistances against the Demon Mineral.

Demon Mineral (2023) is an award-winning ‘anti-Western‘ documentary highlighting the Indigenous struggle for vital living space in the radioactive desert of the American Southwest. Spanning the breadth of the Navajo Nation, in a landscape perforated by abandoned uranium mines, the film unearths the thousand-years-long project of reclaiming sacred homeland.

Cleveland’s Contribution to the Manhattan Project

Though not often highlighted, Cleveland played a direct role in the U.S. effort to develop the atomic bomb. The most significant site was the Harshaw Chemical Company, located at 1000 Harvard Avenue where Big Creek flows into the Cuyahoga River.

From 1942 to 1953, Harshaw was contracted by the Manhattan Engineer District and later the Atomic Energy Commission to process uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF₆); a highly corrosive gas used to enrich uranium-235. This enriched material formed the core of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Harshaw produced approximately 44,000 pounds of UF₆ during this period, making it a direct contributor to the weapons used during the war.

After uranium processing ended, the site continued operating as a chemical plant until the 1990s. Decades later, radioactive contamination was found in the soil and groundwater. In 1999, the Department of Energy transferred oversight of the site to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).

In December 2023, the Corps awarded a $13.4 million remediation contract to address the contamination. Cleanup includes the removal of radioactive soil, groundwater monitoring, and restoration of the site. Work is ongoing as of 2025.

More information and updates can be found at the Harshaw FUSRAP site.

Support Indigenous Resistance to Uranium Extractivism

Petitions (August 2025)

Save the Grand Canyon from Uranium Mining

The Pinyon Plain Mine threatens aquifers and Red Butte, a site sacred to Havasupai, Hopi, and Navajo communities.
Petition:
https://www.change.org/p/save-the-grand-canyon-from-the-pinyon-plain-uranium-mine
Region: Northern Arizona

Support the Navajo Nation’s Uranium Transport Ban

Despite the Navajo Nation’s law banning uranium transport across its land, trucks carrying radioactive ore are still using highways through the reservation.
Petition:
https://www.change.org/p/urge-governor-katie-hobbs-to-support-the-navajo-nation-s-uranium-transportation-ban
Region: Navajo Nation (Arizona)

Protect Bears Ears from Uranium Mining

Mining claims continue to encroach on Bears Ears National Monument, a sacred landscape for multiple tribes.
Petition:
https://www.suwa.org/action-center/protect-bears-ears
Region: Southeastern Utah

Indigenous-Led Organizations to Support

Diné CARE

(Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment)
Focuses on environmental justice, uranium legacy cleanup, and water protection in Navajo Nation.
Website: https://www.dine-care.org
Region: Navajo Nation (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah)

ENDAUM

(Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining)
Leads resistance against in-situ uranium leach mining near Crownpoint and Church Rock.
Information: https://swuraniumimpacts.org/endaum/
Region: Eastern Navajo Agency, New Mexico

Haul No!

Opposes uranium ore transport from the Pinyon Plain Mine through Diné communities. Active in direct action and education.
Information: https://www.haulno.org
Region: Northern Arizona and Navajo Nation

Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition

Formed by five tribes to advocate for the protection of Bears Ears National Monument, including resistance to mining and other land threats.
Website: https://bearsearscoalition.org
Region: Southeastern Utah

Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE)

A coalition of affected communities working to address the impacts of uranium mining and promote cleanup and accountability.
Website: https://masecoalition.org
Region: Grants Mining District, New Mexico

Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment (LACSE)

Works to stop uranium mining near Mount Taylor, a sacred site for Acoma, Laguna, and other Pueblo peoples.
Information: https://swuraniumimpacts.org
Region: West-central New Mexico