The Presbytery of Donegal in Pennsylvania will offer a public apology for the massacre of a small tribe in 1763.

Some men from the Presbyterian Church participated in an attack that left 20 Conestoga Indians dead in December 1763. The reverend at the time had set up a militia called the Paxton Boys to deal with local tribes although the apology says the massacre was not an official action of the church.

"There's a strong symbolism in what they do," Kevin Kenny, an author of a book about the militia, told The York Daily Record. They're saying there's no distinction between a friendly and belligerent Indian, that they all deserve the same fate -- extermination."

The apology takes place Saturday.

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Presbyterian churches plan apology to American Indians (The York Daily Record 10/7)