Editing Amerindian Genocide (section)

====[[Gnadenhutten Massacre]]====
At the time of the American War of Independence, many Native Americans had been converted to Moravian Christianity and so remained neutral due to Christian pacifism. This alienated them from the American militias, who saw them as traitors for not helping to resist the British.

On 4 March 1782, Lieutenant Colonel [[David Williamson]] lead the Pennsylvania Militia in a raid on Gnadenhutten, a Moravian Indian village inhabited mostly by Lenape and Mohican tribesmen. They first came across the half-Lenape Joseph Schebosh and hacked him to death before proceeding on to the village, where they acted friendly and falsely promised the Moravians that they would take them to Fort Pitt to keep them safe from potential enemies. Several militiamen also persuaded Moravian Indians from the nearby town of Salem to come to Gnadenhutten for safety.

Once all the Moravian Indians had gathered, the militia confiscated their guns and axes (which they used for hunting), tied them up and announced that they had been found guilty of false charges of [[murder]] and espionage. The militia voted in favor of killing them (with the exception of eighteen who refused to take part in the massacre) before taking them to “killing houses” on 8 March where they were beaten, [[Scalping|scalped]] and hacked to death while singing hymns and praying. Many native women were [[Gang Rape|gang-raped]] by the militia before being killed. Overall, 96 Moravian Indian men, women and children were killed. The militia planned to commit another massacre at a nearby Moravian Indian settlement but the inhabitants were alerted to the events at Gnadenhutten and fled before the militia arrived.