On this Oct 13, 2025, we honor the horrific events that happened 350 years ago on one of our own Boston Harbor Islands. Massachusetts Pilgrims forcefully relocated hundreds of Native civilians to Deer Island, stranding them there without access to food, water, or medicine at the time. Nearly all of the population died in this horrible massacre. So what really happened in those years on that island?
Breakdown
In the year 1675, Pilgrims who were trying to colonize the East Coast forcefully drove more than 500 Native Americans out of their home of Watertown to Deer Island in what is now Boston Harbor. The population of these natives was tragically mostly children. These indigenous peoples were stranded on the island for years, and the colonists denied them access to food, water, medicine, shelter, or clothing. Nearly all perished in this tragic event, due to starvation or exposure to extreme temperatures. If the Native persons attempted to leave the islands and return to the mainland, settlers were encouraged to “kill and destroy them as they best may or can.”…