Posted on 09/05/2017 9:05:15 AM PDT by pabianice
On Aug. 16, William Bowen of Belchertown emailed town and state officials asking them to no longer recognize Lord Jeffery Amherst and rename the town of Amherst. The issue of Lord Amherst and his violent crimes against Native Americans has been on Bowen’s mind since he first started driving through Amherst nearly 39 years ago.
Bowen sent his petition to his town officials, Amherst’s town officials and state officials, sharing his views and stance on the town of Amherst being named after a “glorified butcher of Native Americans,” according to Bowen.
“It’s like naming a town after Adolf Hitler,” Bowen said.
Lord Jeffery Amherst was a British general in America during the later battles in the French and Indian War in the mid 1700s. Lord Amherst was documented using biological warfare against Native Americans, when he instructed that smallpox infected blankets be passed out to “the heinous dogs,” as he described them.
When Bowen worked in Amherst, he had several Native American customers who were offended by the town name.
“I think it is a slap in the face to Native Americans, and I’m not a Native American,” Bowen said.
He is currently in contact with the Wampanoag and other tribes in Western Massachusetts. He hopes to add their names to the petition and flood the governor’s office with petitions.
Several people have tried to rename the town of Amherst in the past. However, the cost of conversion has been the main issue blocking the change of the town’s name.
State Representative Solomon Goldstein-Rose said he had heard of people trying to rename the town of Amherst to “Norwottuck, after Emily Dickinson, or perhaps Lord Jeff’s sister or some relative with the same name who wasn’t so awful.” But none of these had become actual town meeting proposals, Goldstein-Rose noted.
Regarding the topic of a name change, Amherst Select Board Chair Douglas Slaughter said, “At the beginning of Select Board meetings, we have time set aside for public comment. Citizens may bring this or any other topic to a greater level of attention with us and the community as a whole at that time.”
“I just think it’s time for someone to speak up,” said Bowen, who encourages people to write to their congressmen, senators and governor if they feel the same way.
As of Aug. 24, Bowen had not received any responses from officials regarding his petition.
Abigail Charpentier can be reached at acharpentier@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @abigailcharp.
It can’t be Truth or Consequences; NM has already grabbed that name! Will they rename the college too? People in MA are known for doing peculiar things.
Been to a LOT of keg parties in Amherst.
Really like the downtown area.
I miss the old days...
We’re living through the American version of Mao Tse Tung’s Cultural Revolution - where all history that conflicts with modern “progressive” ideology must either be purged or rewritten. Mao had to imprison and shoot millions to accomplish this in China, what’s the excuse for letting the same happen here?
Chickwalopp would be appropriate, though probably too sexist.
Northampton was also called Norwottuck or Nonotuck, but some variant of Quonquont might be fitting.
Let’s just call towns by their numbers.
You know, like town 451, city 62, like that.
And most of the states have offensive names, you know, like names of “idigenous” people who were slaughtered by the awful White Europeans oppressors.
We can call them by numbers, too, by the order in which they entered the Union.
So, instead of Boston, Massachusetts, we can have City-1, State-4, something like that.
How deliciously Orwellian THAT would be. It would make duckpeak ever more efficient.
Yes, eliminate Amherst College, too, and all other politically incorrect names..... Yale and Stanford must go, for sure.... many more!
Once again the Indians are portrayed as peaceful dolts.
When looked at in context, the local Indian population was known for butchery. There are places in Deerfield and around Springfield that still have names dating back to those days: Things like “bloody brook.” There are burial mounds in Deerfield where the butchered settlers were buried.
I guess you could debate the process of British settlement of the area. But there is no debate about the absolute savagery of the local “docile” native people.
These people trying to alter America's history because some name or statue offends them, are either insane or liberal.
But then I repeat myself.
I suggest that all these renaming people grow the heck up!
This guy never heard of the Deerfield Massacre
How about...
Grievance, MA
Whining, MA
Who, MA (not to be confused with Ware, MA)
Birkenstock, MA
Vegan, MA
I’m sure someone will eventually find out that Amerigo Vespucci did something racist in his life, and we’ll have to rename the country “The United States of Obama” or something.
The arrogance of these people who claim moral superiority over everyone else.
They went 82% for Clinton and only 8.3% for Trump, so I’d say it’s already synonymous.
He should change his own name. Haven’t there been evil Williams in history? He shouldn’t call all those bad memories to mind for everyone who checks his id. He is triggering people all day, and doesn’t even realize it.
I think his new name should be “Harmless”.
How about just demanding this man rename himself to Dumb Shitz?
Coordinates on the Borg Unimatrix.
The Broccoli?
Need to think about renaming Houston re: la raza.
Is this guy even a Native American or just another self righteous liberal?
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