The Kalinago genocide was the genocidal massacre of an estimated 2,000 Kalinago people by English and French settlers on the island of Saint Kitts in 1626.

Event

During the early 17th century, Kalinago leader Ouboutou Tegremante had become uneasy with the increasing number of English and French settlers emigrating to the island of Saint Kitts. The settlers soon outnumbered the Kalinago and began to clear land around the island to establish farms.^[1] In 1626, Tegremond began plotting to massacre all English and French settlers on Saint Kitts, under the fear that they would "completely take over the island"; he secretly dispatched messengers to Kalinago communities on other West Indian islands, informing them to come to Saint Kitts by canoe at night for the planned attack on the settlers. However, a Kalinago woman named Barbe informed Sir Thomas Warner and Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc of Tegremond's plan; taking pre-emptive action, the English and French invited the Kalinago to a party where they became intoxicated. When the Kalinago returned to their village, a combined force of English and French settlers attacked them and 120 Kalinago were killed in the attack, including Tegremond.

On the following day, roughly 4,000 Kalinago were forced by the settlers into the area of Bloody Point and Bloody River where a battle broke out; historian Vincent K. Hubbard estimates 2,000 Kalinago were massacred while attempting to surrender.^[2] The account of the massacre by Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre described "piles of [Kalinago] bodies" after the massacre.^[3] 100 settlers were also killed in the battle, with one French settler going insane after being struck by a poisoned arrow from a Kalinago before dying.

Aftermath

The remaining Kalinago fled into the mountains, and by 1640, those who were not enslaved were forcibly removed to Dominica.^[2][3]

Through subsequent decades of European expansion in the Caribbean, Kalinago populations on other islands were subjected to more massacres.^[4] This history of genocidal warfare against the Kalinago has led to perceptions that "there are no indigenous peoples left in the Caribbean."^[5]