Post office painting of Native Americans called demeaning

DURHAM, N.H. (AP) — For decades, a colorful mural of New Hampshire's earliest settlers hauling logs, frolicking through the snow and walking through town has greeted visitors at a post office in the state.

But one image on the 16-panel artwork of a Native American posing menacingly with a settler's house in the distance — and the words "Cruel Adversity" below it — has sparked controversy in Durham, a mostly white and affluent town that is home to the University of New Hampshire. There are no other images of Native Americans on the mural.

The town said the Native American panel is based on a 1694 massacre in which about 250 Wabanaki warriors attacked a settlement in what is now Durham and killed or imprisoned 100 settlers.