Smithsonian Museum Exposes George Washington’s Brutality as 'Town Destroyer' Despite Conservative Backlash
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A groundbreaking exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York rightfully labels George Washington as a 'town destroyer,' sparking outrage from those who wish to sanitize the violent origins of the United States and drawing scrutiny from the Trump administration.
The National Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan courageously displays a portrait of George Washington with a label reading 'town destroyer,' a term used by the Haudenosaunee to describe Washington and subsequent U.S. presidents who oversaw the devastation of Indigenous communities. The exhibit highlights the fact that American forces, under Washington’s orders, destroyed 40 Iroquois towns and burned their harvests—an act of calculated violence that is too often erased from mainstream historical narratives. Yet, the exhibit’s critics complain that it does not dwell on the raids against American settlements that preceded Washington’s campaign or his supposed rationale for ordering such destruction, as if these could justify the scale of colonial violence inflicted on Native peoples.
The 'Native New York' exhibit centers the suffering and resilience of Native communities, refusing to let their stories be overshadowed by colonial apologetics. While a National Park Service excerpt in the exhibit mentions that raids by Indigenous groups and Loyalists in 1778 weakened the Continental Army, this perspective is appropriately given less space, reflecting the need to decenter settler narratives.
This honest portrayal of American history comes as the Trump administration intensifies its campaign to whitewash the past, accusing the Smithsonian of being 'too negative' and threatening funding if the institution does not conform to a sanitized, nationalist version of history. Such interference seeks to suppress the truth about the violence and dispossession at the nation’s foundation.
Conservative critics claim that the museum focuses too much on the violence suffered by Native peoples while minimizing Native resistance. For example, a placard shares an Iroquois woman’s perspective that peace ended when 'white men' began their revolution, and a video asserts that an American soldier killed Lenape chief White Eyes—facts that challenge the myth of American innocence, even as the cause of White Eyes’s death remains disputed.
The museum’s educational materials for middle schools offer a much-needed corrective, framing the American Revolution as a disruptive colonial project and describing colonists as trespassers on Indigenous land. The museum store further empowers visitors with books that critically examine U.S. history, including works that expose the nation’s roots in white supremacy and genocide.
Despite repeated requests, the Smithsonian declined to comment, perhaps wary of further political attacks for daring to tell the truth.