Washington’s scorched-earth policy: systemic genocide in Haudenosaunee lands as colonial expansion’s template
Original framing: “Of burnt corn and peace: the Sullivan-Clinton campaign | Exclusive” — bing news
Haudenosaunee oral traditions describe the Sullivan-Clinton campaign as a deliberate attack on their agricultural lifeways, which were central to their diplomatic and spiritual systems. The burning of cornfields was not merely tactical but a symbolic erasure of Haudenosaunee governance, as their confederacy’s strength relied on surplus and trade. Indigenous scholars like Audra Simpson argue this campaign was a precursor to modern state violence against Indigenous peoples.
The Sullivan-Clinton campaign was not an aberration but a blueprint for U.S. settler colonialism, where land theft was justified by racialized violence and framed as 'peacekeeping.
' Its legacy persists in the erasure of Haudenosaunee sovereignty, the displacement of Indigenous peoples, and the ongoing struggle for land back. The campaign’s genocidal intent is documented in Washington’s letters, Haudenosaunee oral histories, and archaeological evidence, yet mainstream narratives reduce it to a 'military operation.' Cross-cultural parallels—from Māori *utu* to Aboriginal Australian dispossession—reveal a global pattern of colonial violence disguised as progress. True decolonization requires confronting this history through land restoration, treaty enforcement, and Indigenous-led governance, while centering the voices of those who have resisted erasure for centuries.