Fort Desoto Park, Florida
October 31, 1539
Cause of death: Not Yet Known
Last updated: about 5 years ago
Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas County, Florida
1539 Napituca Massacre
The Spanish initiated the mass slaughters of Indians in North America, beginning with Hernando de Soto in 1539, but they continued unabated (with the English, Dutch, French and Americans also inflicting large-scale massacres) until the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890.
After defeating resisting Timucuan warriors, Hernando de Soto had 200 executed, in the first large-scale massacre by Europeans on what became American soil.