Conotocaurius (Town Destroyer,

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

: ''Hanödaga꞉nyas'') was a

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

given to

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

peoples in 1753. The name in its original language(s) has been given variously as ''Conotocarius'', ''Conotocaurious'', ''Caunotaucarius'', ''Conotocarious'', ''Hanodaganears'', and ''Hanadahguyus''. It has also been translated as "Town Taker", "Burner of Towns", "Devourer of Villages", or "he destroys the town".

History

Washington was given the name in 1753 by the

leader Tanacharison. The nickname had previously been given to his great-grandfather John Washington in the late seventeenth century. He had participated in an effort to suppress Indigenous peoples defending themselves in Virginia and Maryland. It involved members of both the Susquehannah and the Piscataway, an Algonquian tribe that lived across the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

from Mount Vernon. Following the massacre of five chiefs who had come out to negotiate under a flag of truce to the colonizers, the Susquehannahs gave John Washington an Algonquian name that translated to "town taker" or "devourer of villages." The elder Washington's reputation was remembered and when they met his great-grandson in 1753 they called George Washington by the same name, ''Conotocarious''. Washington referred to himself as "Conotocaurious" in a letter he wrote to Andrew Montour dated October 10, 1755, in which he tried to manipulate the

Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida Na ...

to resettle on the Potomac: :Recommend me kindly to our good friend Monacatootha, and others; tell them how happy it would make Conotocaurious to have an opportunity of taking them by the hand at

Fort Cumberland A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, and how glad he would be to treat them as brothers of our Great King beyond the waters. " In 1779 during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, the Sullivan Expedition, under Washington's orders, destroyed at least 40 Iroquois villages in New York, they claimed the tribe came from, after they defended against "American settlements" on their lands. In 1790, the Seneca chief Cornplanter told President Washington: "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you Town Destroyer."

Notes

References

''The life of George Washington'' Vol I,II,III and IV by John Marshall
* Ellis, Joseph J.
Excellency: George Washington
'. New York: Knopf, 2004. . * Graymont, Barbara. ''The Iroquois in the American Revolution''. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1972. ; (paperback). * Lewis, Thomas A. ''For King and Country: The Maturing of George Washington, 1748-1760.'' New York: HarperCollins, 1992. . *

Randall, Willard Sterne Willard Sterne Randall is an American historian and author who specializes in biographies related to the American colonial period and the American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occur ...

. ''George Washington: A Life''. New York: Henry Holt, 1997. . {{George Washington George Washington Iroquois Nicknames Genocides in North America